Adventures of Kingi the Kiwi: Part 5

Checking out the flight path from NZ to Hong Kong.

Taking mint tea at a restaurant in Toulouse.

Whoops, didn't leave enough... this blog is a bit short!

Adventures of Kingi the Kiwi: Part 4

Kingi vs the strawberry tart...

Surveying Saint Gaudens.


With Mum and Dad in St Go.


Aaand, with me and Mum in Saint Go.


On the train from Paris to Toulouse.

Adventures of Kingi the Kiwi: Part 3

Kingi catches up on the news in Barcelona.


Sampling Mooncakes in Hong Kong.


Kingi gets a taste of home in Hong Kong: milo!!!


At a bar in Lourdes.


With a big lion in Bordeaux.

Adventures of Kingi the Kiwi: Part 2

Kingi hangs with the stars in Hong Kong.


Kingi in the hostel room in Bordeaux.


And the public gardens in Bordeaux.


And on the ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong island.

Adventures of Kingi the Kiwi: Part 1

Unfortunately, am not organised enough to get these in order.



Kingi at a Vietnamese restaurant on Hong Kong Island.


Kingi in Paris, having his petit-déjeuner.


Kingi over-indulges in Barcelona.


Kingi in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Funniest Teaching Moments So Far

1. Students' reactions to NZ notes: "C'est moche!" (ie, It's ugly!) This has happened in 2 different classes!
2. One class which, when I asked what there is to do in Saint Gaudens, suggested I hire a car and go to McDonalds.
3. Getting a class to design their own McDonalds hamburger, and having one student design an epic burger with ingredients such as bolognese, chocolate, pasta and honey. Yes, it was a boy.
4. Using 'Put Another Log On The Fire' in one class. The girls are like "What is up with this song?" and one of the boys is like "It's good!"
5. One student's temporary mind blank: I hear him asking his friends how to say something, and tell him to ask me in English. He looks at me for a minute, then turns back to his friends and says "How do you say 'how do you say'?"
6. Listening to a class full of 12 to 13-year-olds singing along to 'Weather With You,' despite the fact that they don't really know the song.
7. Having a student tell me he wouldn't want to be a teacher, because he would want to hit students that weren't behaving.
8. Trying (and failing epically) to explain to a class of approx 17 year-olds why the pick-up line "Baby, you must be a broom, because you just swept me off my feet" was funny. So much for trying to lighten up a lesson on household chores!

Nothing Much, Really

Time is ticking along in Saint Go... can see that this 7 months is going to pass fairly fast. Can't believe that Christmas isn't far away!

Picture number one: tasty things to eat. Problem: I eat things, enjoy them, and promptly forget the name. So, this caramel something-or-other was very tasty, but I'd have to go back to La Mie Câline and read the sign next to them to remember its name. Oops.



About 4 days ago, I said in an email that it wasn't too cold here yet. I take it back. There have been some bloody freezing days since then. Hooray for central heating, though. 'Cos it's nice and toasty inside! There are some great mountain views, though.




Have joined a band, which I'm super happy about, and am trying to learn to improvise. Eek! This should be helped by the fact that I didn't bring any flute music with me, so am reduced to trying to play along with/improvise to songs I have in iTunes if I want to practice. For someone who's generally tied to her music, this is quite a change! Poor neighbours, is all I have to say.

On Friday night, went to an apéro with Xavier and some teachers who... I think... were from the lycée. It was a cool evening, as they were all really nice, and one teacher's cute two-year-old was also there. And, there was Wii... Below is a Spain vs France battle!



Am delighted to have found a second-hand tv for 15E.



I love garage sales. The guy there was trying to sell me a dress: "Mademoiselle, for you... this. One Saturday night... it's for you!" Haha. Instead, I was tempted by the tv, a coat, and a crêpe with lemon and sugar. Apparently, one of the guys had just been trying to convince the crêpe-maker that noone would order lemon and sugar crêpes, so she was quite pleased that I proved him wrong. I think it was all money well-spent, especially since I got a slave to carry it back to my place! Oh, and women exclaiming over my curly hair, and saying it was like dolls' hair.



Xavier emerged when I got home, as I'd told him about the tv, and pretty much knelt down in front of it and began worshipping. Like I said, small town. ;p He then disappeared into his room again, and came out with a Spanish text about tv that he had been working on with his students. I was given 10 minutes to read and then forced to recount what I had understood, in Spanish. Well, ok, I was fairly willing.

I then got made fun of for spreading into the 'lounge' as I'm drying laundry in my room. His theory is that, as a New Zealander, I'm used to having a lot of space. He then did the following calculations...



His conclusion is that, given the space I'm accustomed to in NZ, I probably need the whole building that we're in. I just said I hoped he'd locked his room as, since he's away for the weekend, he might come back and find I've taken that over too!

Am currently trying to organise a visit to Sabrina, who has just got an English-teaching job in Sens, not too far from Paris (yay!), so that will be fun!

Kiss Kiss

Last night... wow, I have never been kissed by so many people in one night before. Men, women, children...

Sounds kinda scandalous, but it's just cos I went to band (so, so happy to have found a band here) and everyone had to say hello, and eventually goodbye. Then I went to an apéro (drinks and nibbles would be the best translation, I guess) and same again.

Turns out that more people do la bise than I realised, as up until now it had been pretty infrequent!

Shout out to AXA folks!

Hi guys

Here are a few more AXA related pix from Bordeaux. Thinking of you all... hard at work. ;p


The ever-present AXA office.


'Come and play in an AXA agency/ You might win a car!'
I'm not sure if 'play' is the right translation, but that's literally what it says!

Life in St Go

Here are some random, everyday photos...

The canteen, just before the influx of internes, keen for their dinner! Cedric, the cook, told me he wasn't photogenic and pretty much ran away. :(


Aaand... everyone eating dinner.


Xavier, hard at work washing dishes... in the bathroom sink. Yeah, remember how I said that we didn't have a proper kitchen? This is our only option.

Some random, long overdue pix

Trying to do 'selfies' on the tourist bus in Barcelona... ah, warmth. I remember that. (Actually, not too bad here, despite a fair amount of snow on Pyrénées).

Mum and Dad at the Louvre in Paris - and on their wedding anniversary! How romantic. :) Except for me being there too.


Barcelona street. I love Barcelona 'cos it's pretty!


With Dad at the Parc Güell in Barcelona.



Trying to give an idea of the awesomeness of views here in Saint Gaudens. This looks pretty sweet even in the photo, but it's better in real life!

Fine, then: Homeward Bound

Last day in Bordeaux: of course, this is when the sun decides to come out. Fortunately, I didn't have to leave until about 4pm.

My room mate from the previous night was a lady from Rouen, who I had a bit of a chat with in the morning, and she kindly gave me her contact details and said I could stay with her if I ever want to go there. Very generous offer! She also tipped me off about the trams. Turns out you could get an hourly or day pass for cheap, and pretty much just sit on them and be carried around the city. Sweet! That suddenly became my day plan.

But, first, tried out my phone card and rang Ma and Pa. First convo since their second visit to Saint Gaudens (ie 2-3 weeks), so nice to talk instead of texting... might have used up the whole phone card in one go...

So, for about NZ$8, I tootled all around Bordeaux in the trams, and quietly wished I'd tried to find out more about them on the wet days... Oh well. Didn't quite get to do all of the lines, but went way out to the suburbs in some directions, which was interesting to see (but not nearly as pretty as central Bordeaux). Check out this cool feature which allows the trams to twist around bends...



One thing I really enjoyed visiting was the public gardens. When I first walked in, I wasn't too impressed, as it was pretty much a big grassy area. However, as I wandered through, I discovered lots of pretty areas and, once again, took lots of photos.



Lunch was not exactly the pinnacle of French food, but it certainly made me happy at the time.



Started to panic a bit at end of the day, as hadn't left myself as much time as I'd have liked to get back to hostel and train station. Ooops. Turned out I was ok, and had about 10mins of sitting on the train before it took off.

Felt quite pleased with myself, as I wandered past an uncertain-looking person on the platform, and he was like "Do you know where you're going? Do you speak English?" Why, yes! Guessing he didn't speak French at all, as he couldn't understand the bits on his ticket which told him which carriage he was in, and what his seat number was. Yay... I'm finally getting familiar enough with something French that I can help someone else!

Lots of camo-clad soldiers (a few with rifles) wandering around at Toulouse Matabiau station, and a few in civvies but with a giveaway issue pack. Not sure why. Think some were going back to base, but the rifle ones were apparently patrolling. Hm. Wonder what the latest threat is?

Last hour on the train seemed much longer, but eventually got back to chez moi (my place). First time I'd travelled away from St Go (except for a day trip to Toulouse) so kinda nice to come back and realise that it's become familiar, and more like home!

How to Get Lost in Bordeaux

It's really very easy. All you have to do is set off in the opposite direction to which you normally go (ie into the suburbs), walk for about 40 minutes, and THEN check your map to see where you are. This is basically what I spent my morning doing.



However, I did go past (okay, and into) a couple of nice shops, some cute little neighbourhood shopping centres, AND I purchased a phone card for calling NZ from one of the numerous 'ring your family for less!' shops. I also saw quite a few things which reminded me of French Club times, back in the day, which I hope to email photos of soon.

Also got to see some political material (Lorenz, lol):



Lunch was back at the hostel... I think! Am struggling to remember this day, to be honest.

Went to see the Art Museum behind the town hall, as the permanent exhibitions were free. Yay! Spent some time contemplating just how old some of the paintings were; it's amazing the history that you can find at some of those places, if you stop to consider it. I mean, paintings from the 1800s... And I still don't understand how painters do it! Getting the shadows on wrinkles of material just right, and stuff like forests. If I tried, it'd just look like blobs of paint and random dashes of colour, but they somehow make it work. Envy.

Spent the arvo combing the shops. Not a huge selection in Saint Gaudens, so was quite enjoying myself. Found a huge mall with an absolutely massive 'Auchan' shop (Vivons mieux, vivons moins cher: Live better, live more cheaply - I think this is their slogan). It had rows of about 15 checkouts on each of its approx 3 levels. Amazing. Also a pretty tasty looking biscuit shop, but I resisted... Best find was on the main shopping street, and the closest thing to NZ's Kathmandu shop that I've found (called Decat). 15E sneakers, and 9E plain, long-sleeved cotton t-shirts. Happy times.

Was too lazy to organise my own dinner at the hostel, so decided to revisit my kebab man. He seemed quite pleased to see me, and we had another long chat. This somehow got onto the topic of marriage, divorce, and how apparently, in Turkish culture, it's ok for a married man to 'have some fun,' but not for a woman. However, it is not ok to divorce because of this. Interesting...



Went for a walk across the Pont de Pierre a) because it had stopped raining and, b), because I could. Couldn't stop myself from taking many, many pictures. Here's one of the better ones.

Bordeaux: I Went on a Bus, Got Caught In The Rain (And It Felt So Good, I Wanna Do It Again)

Rosie, if you're reading... it's the curse of the musician. I can't help but make jokes with Bachelor Girl's "I walked under a bus, got hit by a train..." song.

On day 2, I decided to do a bus tour, since Mum, Dad, and I had enjoyed many of them during our travels. This one was not such a good call, as it was only an hour long and was not hop-on-hop-off. Plus, it was kinda wet, so the usually open-topped bus had a plastic cover, which meant it wasn't even really worth taking photos 'cos of rain drops, and 'cos it was fogging up a bit. However, did get to relax, out of the rain, for an hour, while seeing sights (many of which I'd already passed on foot) and learning a bit more about them.

After that, decided to take off on foot again, and revisit some of the places the tour had been on, to get better photos.

Cathédral Saint André: one of many impressive churches in the area. Amazing that things like this are just down at the end of a street. Just chillin', casually!

I look fairly serious here, but this is the Place de la Victoire (central square). Thought I'd better take some photos with me in them, so people would believe I was actually here. Hence serious look: trying to decide whether I'd got it well-framed.

Decided to lunch the French way, and headed into a resto that I stumbled across, where I had a very nice Boeuf Bourgignon and chocolate mousse. Very, very tasty. Just as well, as it was about 20E... yeah, that's right. I paid about NZ$40 for lunch. I actually didn't expect it to be that expensive, but hey. It was very nice.



Went wandering again after lunch. Bad call. Or, at least, bad call to try to protect myself from the rain with just a jacket. My pants got soaked through: at the base because I hadn't tucked them into my boots, and at the top because of the water running off my jacket. Then, to top it all off, cars driving past on the Pont de Pierre actually splashed me. Epic fail.

I retreated to the hostel to dry out and try to stop feeling grumpy. Made the most of French tv (another luxury I haven't yet got at my place), and planned some lessons. Met a girl who studies international relations, and spoke very good English.

Ventured out again in the evening, when the rain had eased, and got some nice night-time shots.




That night: luxury. Had the 2-person room to myself. Alriiiiiiiiiight!