New friends, train travel and other choses!

What a week. So much has happened so I'm going to dive straight in!

Tuesday there was an offer on the carte jeune (youth rail card giving me 50% off train journeys in Nord Pas de Calais and 30% off train journeys in France) which I fully recommend to anyone in France at the mo - it's a life saver. I also brought my train pass for work!

After this I took a lovely trip to the library, did some food shopping and basically thought I was up for a slow afternoon - I was wrong!

Library in Douai, pretty beautiful.

A bibliophile's dream

Outside the library. How luuuush!

I got asked to go to Lille via our cute Facebook group "keen for cheese" to finally meet up with other assistants that had arrived this week, so I took the plunge...or train (not so bad with the new discounts!) It was literally the greatest day. Meeting Nia, Jess, Becca, Lauren, Jay, Ryan and Ash was a fantastic experience, exchanging our recent experiences, universities, info, accents and drinks - what could have been better?A huge shout out to Jess Porter, because without you none of this would have been possible for me (YOU BABE!) And I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am for Monday's training day together!

Giant church :)

Beautiful Catholic Church with Jesus pointing to Becca and Lauren's flat ;)

And again, cos it's pretty cute and french.

Our view from the restaurant

Smiles all round :D

The candid venture begins

Jess just acting causal ;)

So nice after 3 weeks to have a day in English! I can tell already we're going to have the best time together. (I hope!!)

Wednesday was a little..different? I went to the post office in the morning to send off my pass-pass for the train, and accidentally what a shame came back with a scarf (who comes to France without one ME of course). Preparing to do administrative work, sort my timetable out and potentially rest from yesterday's action at some point, it was a no-makeup kind of day. HOW WRONG WAS I?! Poor Vanesa (another assistant) moves to Douai, yet her accommodation wasn't ready! Wednesday was spent hunting for hotels, speaking lots of French on phones, in reception and making sure everything was OK for her! It is now thank god!

Thursday wasn't any less hectic, with my doctors appointment...which I was terrified for, not sure if my French was good enough, what if I had the wrong documents, HOW DO I GET ACROSS THE TRAIN LINES? Poor Matt had to put up with me through this (heart of gold). Making it on the right train to Arras, and finding the doctors in less than 10 mins was a pat on the back and 8230423 cakes my way I thought. Turns out my school hadn't given me the right reimbursement papers...so it was either come all the way back again another day, or pay 23 euros...so looks like I'm 23 euros less for a piece of paper but IT'S DONE! The evening was spent with the French family and Isabelle's friends eating 23984230023 French Crepes, chatting and organising cinema outings woo!

I mean it's rude not to have 5 crepes... 

Isabelle cooking!

Friday Today was really good too! I have finally met my mentor at Vitry, who is also so lovely. I met a few colleagues and even the deputy head. I had a lovely tour around the school and spent some time doing a bit of administration! The only downside was the frequency of trains is terrible. I missed the 2:30 train and had to wait 2 hours for the next one sigh ! I finished my book, went through all my phone photos, walked up and down the platform and possibly lost even more brain cells, but I'm home :) I'm currently waiting for Marie and Charlotte to get here from volley ball, and this weekend we have a family meal!

A few snaps of Vitry

Beautiful flowers despite autumn weather!

belle!

Also saw this beautiful house and thought it was worth the photo!

My view for 2 hours.....

 And now what?

Tomorrow is the family meal! Sunday (I'm so excited I can't even sdkfjsdksdjk) I'm going to Lille to meet the girls and stopping over at Nia's. Girl's night I think is well in order! Monday we are off to the assistantship day together and hopefully won't die of the early get up! Tuesday is my day off and then work starts Wednesday with Caroline in Biache!

Wish me luck!

JR

xxxx

So the administration begins...and so does the cake...

I'm settling in pretty well to Douai at the moment. Last week I did a lot of exploring around my local area (mainly finding the best bread) and practising my vousvoyer with shop keepers! After a very busy weekend last week (see blog post about the volleyball game!) it was nice to start the week slowly wondering like a flâneuse! 

Wondering the streets!

Cheese anyone?

spot the portalooooo

Last week I also managed to sign up to the local library for free, which means 4 books/magazines/articles for 15 days as well as a huge choice of DVDs and CDs. It was a fairly smooth process signing up, with proof of address, ID and then a simple photo (I'd recommend to future assistants getting some passport photos taken, they're really useful to just give in for passes like these!) The literary geek in me was so happy this week...

Can't get much geekier than this guys.

After joining the library, I've discovered it works really well as a replacement phone. Basically, I haven't got a French phone nor a French number, as I found paying for this on top of my English one silly (and emergency texts/calls to people are only a couple of pense anyway!) Sadly, no data-roaming or constant texts when I leave wifi zones...so books have been a great way to avoid being fed up when waiting for trains for example. (Plus they fit nicely in my bag!)

Geek moment over, I've been to the bank this week...eugh. It has taken 2 weeks to sort out an appointment, but yes we finally went. Taking Isabelle with me really helped, as sometimes the banquier guy didn't seem to understand I'm English, staying here for a year, and not just a holiday tourist! Finally we opened the bank account (after an hour and a half of this guy talking about politics, his family, himself...oh and the occasional useful fact) we left the bank at half five to do some food shopping. After getting home we realised he wanted a UTR code....for people in France, this is a registered code to show you do/dont pay taxes. In England we have National Insurance Numbers, but only UTR codes if you work from home...so trying to explain this different system became tiring. With my mom on the phone to our tax office, me on the phone to everyone I could think of to help, we finally managed to sort this out (so thanks to all my friends at home/france)!

En bref, I'm waiting for my card to arrive and now I've got my account - HURRAY. Let's talk about cake.

 I visited Marie's grandparents this week, who've met myself and Matt at Easter around 2/3 years ago? Wow. They're lovely and these cakes were equally as delish....

After munching on these, I went and watched Marie's volley ball training (and nearly had my head took off a few times) and then we had home baked pizzas from the local bio-boulangerie (the best things in the world), better than dominos...maybe touching on Pizza in Rome(maybe).

This Saturday I went to Biache to meet Caroline again and her family...look more cake! 

We managed to sort out all my Erasmus papers and my timetable (sort of)! I managed to successfully book a doctors appointment for Thursday for a man "agreed by the National Educational Bureaucracy" to give me a medical check up for my job - yet Caro informed me I need a separate file to take with me...or he'll turn me away - oh the joys.

On the plus, we went to a Chinese restaurant and ate so much lovely food! It was a pleasure! I may also have been brought another cocktail (life is great)

Sunday was match day for LOSC ladies which was an incredible game. Charlotte's team won 6-0 with some incredible goals. I also visited GUR, the biggest kebab restaurant in Europe (placed all around Europe) for some fries to go with our pork dinner...no complaints!

After the match we always get to go into Lille's football clubhouse for drinks and snacks. The most amazing bit for me, is how Charlotte's team are treated. They're seen as real football celebrities as the first women's team and have little kids asking for autographs and photos!! (Chacha the star!)

So I feel very lucky to know her and Marie hehe.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse

Chacha and her many fans :) (they're all queuing for her autograph)

Mes filles :P

Charlotte being forced to have photos :P

So what's happening this week?

This week is a bit busy. Tomorrow I'm buying a cartejeune -  rail card to get 50% off in Nord pas de Calais, and 30% in France woo, and hopefully getting a pass for work too at some point! I'm also going to Arras to visit the doctor, and Vitry to visit the school. This week is my last week before work...so sleep is vital! Our training day is next Monday (let's hope I make some friends!)

Au revoir!

(in case people at home have forgot what I look like..)

JR

When Bloxwich meets France..

It's a tough life being foreign! It's not uncommon at the moment for people to demand if I've heard of certain things, because I'm English... somethings I understand - No I didn't know LEJ was an amazing French cover band thank you so much - but other things, like Pokemon....some are shocked I know of it! How funny! Maybe England is a new universe?

When having a soirée eating subways, watching The Voice and one of the girls asks what are typical clichés of the French, it was always going to end in laughter! When talking about how apparently women do not shave, everyone has 2948483 baguettes and garlic, as well as constantly surrendering in wars - the French girls were in fits of laughter! For the English reader, apparently the clichés about us are we wear wacky clothes, bright colours and always drink tea. The latter I can vouch for.

Trying to clarify the truth about English people, however... things got a little tricky in ye'old francais!

When trying to explain the English love a good queue, you have to understand the word 'queue' in French is pronounced 'Qu'... however the word for butt is cul also pronounced 'Qu'. So when I said Les anglais aiment les queues they heard English people like butts.  In my defence of this misunderstanding, they did think Beyoncé 'Halo' was I can see your hello due to the pronunciation! 

Learning to articulate myself like a true French Northerner can be tough. No joke, I've sat in the car many a time this week making 'monkey' sort of impressions trying to get the 'ou' in écouter, Cou cou, and the 'U' in musique, to sound very French... This is all well and good until me and the French Mom start doing this in public places and people start staring...... :D

Being English in a foreign country can prove to be tricky but fun at times. When known as la petite anglaise I've been told the slight English twang my French accent has is 'mignon' cute and that I should try to keep it... yet other times especially in shops, people can't seem to place where the hell in France I'm from.... OooOooooops. People in shops, however, do talk too quickly as they're pressed for time, so yes sometimes you have to guess what the hell they've just said and add up their numbers quicker than a mental math test *soixante dix euros s'il vous plait* 60+10 OH SEVENTY!?! 

Strangers, like in shops, are difficult to talk to due to the French VOUS rule. Despite being an OK student at French, conjugating Vous quickly I wouldn't say is my strongest point....I'M ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING.  So English people what does this mean? To cut a complex rule short, I'm talking to everyone like we're friends, or I'm mixing two verbs up and sounding...retarded !! I do blame pressure! It's getting better though as the weeks go on. 

But some people are VOUS people. These aren't your young hipster kinda kids that will chat your head off, oh no these are the strangers you meet, your boss, your colleagues (some) and even elderly people who demand respect....I best sort this out...

Of course 2 weeks into France I'm going to be extremely foreign, it's just a world wind of an adventure after all!

Meeting French Colleagues and Volley Ball!

This weekend has been sooooo busy, but it's so good to have so many plans! **please please read the English errors section after the end of this post-----it's made a lot of people laugh!**

Saturday!

I've finally met the lovely lady who is my mentor for my assistantship! Her name is Caroline and has a heart of gold - I'm unbelievably lucky. We met at Douai train station yesterday, where she and her husband (also a maths teacher at my school) picked me up and took me to both the schools that I would be working at. Not only did they show me the schools, but they took me from the train stations in Vitry and Biache and showed me the routes I should take! Suuuuuuuper kind!

After these useful journeys I met Caroline's children and we went to Buffalo Grill - a huge steak house! There I met other colleagues from the school and we had a fantastic time. To celebrate my birthday (despite it being a little late) Caroline brought me a cocktail, my meal and then lots of French books - WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE HER?!

If you like piña coladas...

After this we went shopping...which was also a strange experience Saturday with these strange beings....

They were randomly walking round posing for photos! Very odd, but kind of cool! I'm saving my money up but it was good to go into more and more French boutiques! I also met some more of Caroline's family Saturday and was so tired being out the house from 9h-18h but it was toooootally worth it! 

What's proving a little tricky at the moment is administration *yay* but hopefully I'll have a bank account by next week...and possible Erasmus forms sorted? Or in the process? It's nice to be hopeful. I'd recommend to anyone to get the Erasmus stuff sent to the mentor ASAP, as you never know how long it is going to take - the questions are proving tricky for les ch'tis!

Match du Volley!

My French friend Marie invited me to her first volley ball match of the season today, which was so cool! Not only did I really enjoy the fast pace, action and easy rules, but I've upped my sporting vocab in French quite a bit too! Was so much fun to sit and watch all the action unfold, the time went so fast! (Which is good in some ways as I was up at 7am!!!)

I've took a few snaps!

Some classic French moves here!

Read my next post on English Errors! I was going to put it here...but it deserves its own space!

My Première Week in France....

Bonjour from France!

My first week has gone very quickly and I've already felt like I've done so much! After arriving Wednesday, getting settled in and seeing the family, I quickly gained a set of house keys and ventured out into my new town - Douai!

This is Isabelle showing me the sights! The main town square in this photo! Trop belle!

It was really important that I found the train station - especially by myself, as this is how I'm going to travel to my job in October - and more recently, use it with Matt. Here are some photos of how beautiful the station and surrounding area is:

Giant plant pots!!!

England eat your heart out! Going around Douai on my own without Isabelle/the family was a little strange at first but a great photo snapping experience, it allowed me to remember my way round and give me more confidence! And more food.....oops

This is our equivalent of a chippy.....not quite the same but still!

Major selfie opportunity taken here

Matt arrives!

It wasn't long until a little bit of home reached me to spend my birthday in France together! This is a snap of Charlotte, Marie and I in the car on the way to Lille to pick Matt up! 

My French friends are the most loveliest people I could ever wish to meet. Charlotte plays for the Lille Women's first team and gave Matt and I free tickets to the match - Lille VS Monaco - put it this way normally it's 80 euros for two tickets....wow.

Ok so Lille lost - but the game was fab!

BIRTHDAY TIME!!!!

Waking up in someone else's house for my 21st was a little...odd? Matt and I slept over at Charlotte's house in Lille, as Douai is majorly far away from the stadium. One thing I've learnt about France so far is that when you have close French friends, they are not only the most welcoming people ever (along with their families), but you do have a lot of sleepovers! This is often due to the fact that distance is further than in England...and it just makes things easier!

My 21st was lovely to spend with Matt and the girls, as we went to see Charlotte play football. On the night Matt and I went for a meal in a Brasserie - A French pub! It was suuuuch good food, but whyyyyy do the French/Whole of Europe eat so late?!?!

Unlike Lille the night before, Charlotte's team won 1-0 ALLEZZZZZZ :) 

A Ch'ti burger - ch'ti is what they label as 'north', northern people, food etc...but what's funny is it's pronounced "sh-tea" seems a bit insulting :P 

A day in ARRAS.

It's not getting any cooler in the North! More and more days of 30 degree heat...so we decide to walk and venture in it! (oops). Taking the train to Arras was beautiful, their town hall and square was fantastic, not to mention the amount of baguettes, cakes/pastries and little monuments we saw!

A beautiful day. The large spike above is Place de Victor Hugo, anyone who knows me well enough will know how cool this is for me (literature lover). All in all a perfect way to start my exploring in France - with sunshine, my best friend and food!

See you soooooon Matt! Well the French say À bientôt!

Saying goodbye always sucks for me - as everyone at home and Nottingham will know. But this time it's not for too long and hopefully I'll be bringing home some cool photos, memories and prezzies! Luckily I've got a French family who are constantly helping me to work on my accent and vocab - enough to keep anyone busy! Isabelle is working on my accent at the moment (god help her)!

So what now? Now I'm still trying to sort out my bank account - an appointment has been booked for next week...yay French administration... and this weekend I'm having a whole day with my mentor teacher to sort out Erasmus, shopping, eating and meeting colleagues and of course her lovely family! WORK IS FAST APPROACHING :D

À TOUTE À L'HEURE

JR

x