I'm feeling slightly unproductive as the only time I've used a crochet hook since I got here was to extract a shy drawstring from my pyjama trousers. I have found a yarn shop in Centre-ville but I've not passed in optimum not-on-way-to-work conditions and while it was open (most shops here close between 12-2pm). I need to knit something! Anything!
My second week's going pretty well so far (this is a Wednesday evening - French schools have no class on Wednesdays and they no longer have Saturday mornings either). With Hallowe'en coming up during the mid-term break most of my lessons have involved something do to with this - from teaching numbers (one black cat, two ghosts, three witches etc.) to listening comprehension (John Barrowman reading Winnie The Witch on CBeebies!). I've made this for my Thursday and Friday classes so they can design their own pumpkin faces:
Observations on French primary schools that I've collected so far:
* French kids learn handwriting, and by that I mean calligraphy script. When I was in primary school we learnt to make letter shapes into vaguely recognisable forms in the hope that we would end up with legible handwriting, but these kids are being taught what kind of loop to put between each letter etc. I have to spell out what I've written on the board for some classes, and that's even when I'm being extra neat, because all the teachers write in the same style. It's either script or book-style print over here.
* French students have to learn verb endings too, and this makes me happy in a schadenfreude kind of way.
* The teachers seem to be pretty short-tempered with the pupils' minor misbehaviour (I saw some 9yr old boys get thoroughly shouted down for taking blu-tack off the walls and putting it in their pockets).
* It's not just new and exciting teaching assistants that get notes and pictures from their young admirers. The other day the CE2 (8-9yrs) teacher came into the staff room and showed me something a girl had given her - a piece of paper covered in hearts with the words "Madame, je t'aime". French doesn't have really have words that differentiate between love/like immensely/admire; as one of my younger classes were filing out of the classroom on Monday a small girl whispered in my ear "Je pense que tu es magnifique" and then ran out with her friends. I forgot how impressionable small children are - I am careful not to smoke when I'm near the schools!
On Saturday night, Amiens hosted La Nuit Blanche (coming to Brighton on the 30th of this month). It's a city-wide contemporary arts festival so we found modern art in public squares, DJs in small bars, photography exhibitions in our local pub, musicians in the streets... and The Bobby McGees! (domestic violence and ukuleles):
Me and Rob, who's here on ERASMUS at the university:
and in other news? Finances are awful (I can't afford this month's rent so need to get hold of my dad and eat humble pie for a loan), and paperwork bureaucracy is giving me headaches and anxiety (need to send numerous forms/find other ones that have gone missing in the post) and probably not helping my neverending cold, but look what I found in the supermarket!:
and finally, as an extra special treat, here are my knees last Sunday morning, the day after I fell over in public. The right one still hurts when I have been cycling for ages:
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