Bon Marché: Good bargain/market

Had to go into town - I say 'go into town,' but it's literally about 5 mins walk - to pick up stuff from the bank, and stumbled upon the market. Which wasn't really hard to do, as it seemed to spread through most of the town. Wherever there was a square (or any kind of open space), there were stalls of all sorts. Fruit, deli-style caravans, clothes, plants, shoes... There was one stall with a huge pan of extremely tempting paella!
I felt very French. Lol. But, seriously, it was all that stuff that you get told in French class coming to life. At one particular fruit/veg stall, the vendor had the sales patter down and was busy weighing everyone's purchases. At another, I heard the stallholder say "So, the usual?"
So, now I just get to feel frustrated that I'm presented with all of this fresh produce and have no real kitchen. It's so unfair. ;p

The Tour of Saint-Go

Spent a good couple of hours following a signposted route around central Saint-Gaudens today, and actually reading the signs so that I could learn a bit more about the history of the area I'm wandering around in each day. Of course, I've already forgotten most of it, but that's why I took pictures of lots of the signs. ;p Not that they're far from home if I ever need to check facts.
Have just included a few photos here, to give you a general idea of the village.La Collégiale: in the centre of town. I, of course, have forgotten when it was built, but I do recall that it has been added to on a couple of occasions, and is still in use as a 'house of God.'

Fairly typical architecture: one of the signs told me about these 'galleries' on the top floor of the houses. Designed to get as much sun as possible, give easy access to the outdoors, and maybe even a bit of extra living room. I think most of them are houses, but Sud31 is a real estate office.

View from below the Collégiale, looking towards the train station (and the factory, and the Pyrénées). The panoramic table thing at the base of the photo says what the different peaks in the Pyrénées are, and also gives direction of and distance to various cities of the world. NZ didn't rate a mention, but Sydney was there. Actually, I was highly amused to see what looked like 'Borat' marked on there, too!

Rue des Remparts: very close to the centre of town. The street is on a site which was formerly occupied by the town walls! You can kinda see some of the 'galleries' at the top left, but I really took the photo because I thought it was really cute.

Strike 2

Another strike today (16/10/10), so a good chance to put up the photos of the last one, and some of the new ones. There's another strike planned for Tuesday, too. This is an interesting time to be in France...

Heard on the radio today that fuel is in short supply. The trains are running less frequently. Apparently, the lycée where I'm working was blocked off at the end of last week. Admittedly, the last one's the only thing that really affects me! And, even then, I work at the lycée at the start of the week, so I didn't even know until I saw one of the teachers. Her husband decided to use my langauge skills to check that the message on his phone was telling him that his flight had been cancelled. Because he was flying with EasyJet, the message was in English, but he doesn't speak English! Not so useful.
Was surpised to see one of the banners today, reading something like: "Sarkozy (+2 other names that I can't remember now). Never, before them, was I ashamed to be French." Clearly, people are pretty upset.

Random differences between France and NZ

• I've seen at least two shops that, from the exterior, I thought were supermarkets, yet seemed to be full of freezers. Am still not sure what is with this 'frozen supermarket' idea.
• I went to the post office and was standing in line, waiting my turn... until I noticed that the post office workers were calling people by number. Sure enough, next person who came in went to a little machine off to the side, and took a number. Am a little bit bemused by this. It's not a particularly big post shop. Maybe there have been lots of arguments about whose turn it was next?
• You do not have to wear a helmet here when you're riding a bike. And the only people who I've seen do it are young kids.Things shut here (at least, in Saint Gaudens) for about 2 hours over the lunch period. Am learning not to try to get anything done between 12 and 2.
• People pay by cheque, often. I reckon that, in NZ, people would look at you funny if you pulled out a chequebook at the supermarket. But it's totally the norm here.
• It's weird seeing kids smoking outside schools (well, only the lycée, but still). Apparently, you can smoke from age 16 here.One day, when I went down to the staff lunch room, there was wine on the table. Alriiiiiiiiiiiight!
• When the Government looks like it's going to change a law and people don't like it, they all hit the streets with banners, and ready to make noise. Ok, well, similar protests happen in NZ. But it seriously looked like most of the town out in the streets today, and I've never seen that at home.
• Here, if you work on a train, you get a cool uniform. AND if you're the person who gives the all clear for the train to leave the station, you get a whistle, and a little paddle to wave.
• Teachers here do their studies, sit a pretty competitive exam, and then get sent to a school of the Ministry's choosing. I much prefer the NZ style, where we get to choose a school! Also got told by a first-year teacher that they have recently changed the rules, so that new teachers go straight into and 18-hour teaching week. Ouch.
• Just for something really random: light switches and power points. I'm pretty much basing this on the hotel we stayed in in Toulouse, and my room now, but they are different. :) Lightswitches seem to be about 5x3cm, and you can pretty much just jab them with an elbow to make the light turn on/off (like). Powerpoints (aside from the whole 2 round prongs instead of the 2-3 flat ones in NZ) have no switch. You plug something in: it's on. Which is quite good if, like me, you have the occasional absent-minded moment and forget to do unimportant stuff like turn your appliances on at the wall.
• I've seen quite a few different wines for sale for about 3 euros. Which would be about NZ$6. *Amazed*
• Xavier has crustless sliced bread. What is this strange idea? I guess it saves parents with fussy kids a bit of trouble. He reckons it's the latest fad.Speaking two (or more) languages is nothing unusual around here. Although, I've met a few people who tell me they've forgotten all the English they learned at school!
• Credit cards in Europe have a chip in them: ie you don't swipe them, you just stick them into the machine. This means a) that I can't use my NZ debit card in several places because they don't have the correct reader, b) that, when I do use my card, there's a decent chance I won't be asked to sign. Bizarre. I could have stolen it, for all they know!It takes me considerably longer to do my shopping, as pretty much all of the products are different.
• Camembert (at least, most of it in the supermarket I shop at) comes in a little, cylindrical, light wooden box. Hard to describe... so here's a pic.
• White pants (for those that aren't Kiwis, that's trousers, not underwear!). What's up with that? Is it just me, or is it asking for trouble? As soon as you so much as sit on a park bench you're gonna have really blatant marks.
• There are condom vending machines outside the pharmacies here. And I think I saw one in the lycée.
• 

Strikes as a Spectator Sport

Ladies and Gentleman, today I was presented with a most French experience: la grève. And, to accompany it: la manif (demonstration... the full word is manifestation but perhaps it is a more popular passtime here than I realised, as the name has been shortened!)

I had been told by a few staff members that there was a strike today, but hadn't really thought much of it. Turned up to the lycée (senior high school) this afternoon, expecting to have about 4 classes. Au contraire, I didn't end up having any as, even if the teacher was there, there weren't many students. Apparently, even the school buses were affected. I'm sure the students were heartbroken about this.

Walking home from the lycée, I noticed a suspicious number of people in the streets, all heading in the same general direction... It was only about 3pm so couldn't even blame it on the end of the work day. When I got closer to the town square, I could see some speakers surrounding a little step-ladder, and a Police car patrolling the area. So, there was indeed going to be a manif! And, of course, on the one day I didn't have my camera with me in my bag.

I came home to my room at the collège and decided to start reading my next book. The manifesteurs (I don't know if that's a word, but I'm going to use it anyway) had other ideas. Their street march having started, the sounds of chanting, drums beating and random instruments were making it difficult to concentrate. Eventually, I decided. If you can't beat them, join them. I, too, was dans la rue (taking to the street)...

Flags, signs, noise-makers of all kinds. Adults, young people, families.

Then, something amazing happened: I saw someone I knew! (It hasn't been happening much over here.) One of the teachers from the lycée came over and asked if I wanted to join in. She then asked if the manif surprised/amazed me. My answer: "yes, I've never seen so many people in the town!" Anywho, I hung about on the outskirts, taking a few photos to show you folk just how the French strikes were, and hoping that no-one would tell me it wasn't something to take photos of.

I was also amused to see a Policewoman, who was (I think) semi-marshalling traffic and keeping an eye on things, spot an acquaintance in the large group of manifesteurs and go over to faire la bise (ie greet with a kiss). And amused by a man who stopped in the street to talk to his friend... who was hanging out of a window about two floors up.

After a parade around the town centre, the manifestation seemed to be nearly finished. Some people, indeed, were sneaking off. I watched the drummers continue their display (had nothing on 7Bat's drum corps, though) and listened to a bit of "all together" chanting, before deciding that was enough of a cultural experience for one day.

Judging by the number of people wearing stickers saying "ni pauvre, ni soumis" (neither poor, nor submissive - from what I can gather) and sitting outside cafés, that seems to be the thing to do after a manif. I, on the other hand, just went back home.

When I got to the park outside my school, I smelt something that reminded me of fireworks, and saw a group of young boys crowded around a rubbish bin. Sure enough, within seconds, they all sprinted away from it and there was a decent bang. Judging by the four or five other bangs which I heard from my room, it took a few tries for them to get sick of this. Typical. Wherever in the world you are, boys will be boys!

Pix to follow... thought I had them on my USB, but now can't find them. Fail.

Amusing moments of the past few days

• The school cook and one of the surveillants offering to be porters for me on my way back to NZ... so they can come to the Rugby World Cup. The same surveillant then decided he wasn't going to talk to me any more when I admitted that I don't really understand/like rugby.
• Flatmate, Xavier, singing his own version of 'New York, New York' (entitled 'Toulouse, Toulouse') while we were waiting for the train to the aformentioned town.
• The SNCF (train network) dude asking me if one of my friends was married. Unfortunately for him, she is.
• The following piece of graffiti. I don't know how well the tagger thought this one through.
• Sitting in our assistantship training as they compared phonetic transcriptions for the British and American accents, and having Kate say "let's just hope they don't expect us to teach the difference between 'bear' and 'beer'!" Then, on the train home, trying to practise this by faking a posh British accent and saying "I went to the woods and saw a bear. But, I went to the pub and had a beer."
• Spending a day flipping between French and English so much that I tried to tell Kate that a ticket stamping machine "did the même chose to Anabel."

A week in Saint Gaudens

Hard to believe that I'd never been to Saint Gaudens this time last week! It feels quite familiar already, although that's probably because it's pretty small.

Haven't started teaching yet, but I do have my timetable. It has taken a wee bit of going from school to school, and a bit of hanging around in staff rooms, waiting for teachers to be free, but it is (almost) finished now. Am supposed to be starting all classes next week, although will go to a few on Thurs and Fri this week.It's going to be a bit confusing as, not only is my time shared between three schools, but I'm only going to be in some of the classes once each fortnight. I am sure to end up in the wrong place at some point.
The teachers have all been really nice, and most have been speaking to me in English... feels a bit like cheating, but I guess it's good for them! And I have enough opportunities to speak French to other people, so it shouldn't put me too far behind there. Am pleased to be working with a couple of male teachers as, on thinking about it, I never had a male associate when I did my teacher training in NZ.

Saint Gaudens is a pretty place, with the only blight on the landscape being the local factory! There are heaps of tall, old buildings with shutters and narrow, cobblestoned streets. Can be quite entertaining just to go for a wander - and I have been doing a bit of that, as there isn't too much else entertainment going at the moment. ;p Over the weekend, I found a nice, tree-lined walkway with fitness trail, so guess I should make use of that.
Lodgings are both good and bad. I like my room: it's big, it has basic furniture, it's at one of the schools I teach at and close-ish to the other two. I don't like not having a proper kitchen! It's fine during the week, when I can eat at the school canteen, but I find it a bit frustrating during the weekend to try to feed myself when all I have is a fridge, microwave and hot plate. Ie only a wee desk as kitchen bench, no kitchen equipment, and no sink to wash dishes in...

Also, no tv or internet at the flat at this stage. Really have to check that out with the lady in charge.

Then again, another good point is that I have a flatmate! Xavier, a Spanish assistant at the lycee I'll be teaching at, lives here too. I confess; I haven't been practising my Spanish (we speak French), but it's nice to have a friend! He's pretty hard case, and also into music.

The school cook and the surveillants (who look after the hostel kids) are also really friendly, so can have a good chat with them when I go down to have dinner. Great French practice... although a couple of them are threatening not to talk to me again now that I've admitted I don't really like rugby. (Should have lied.) Cedric, the cook, keeps telling everyone this. Lol, I told him he should stop. I'll have no friends left!

Feeling pretty pleased with myself, as I opened my French bank account today. The proof of ID things that they give you are important for other admin things (like getting paid by the school), so was extra glad to get those pieces of paper. Will also be nice to withdraw $ (or, rather, euro) without the extra fees for the change of currency, and to have a card with a chip so I can actually use it in the machines for train tickets. Sick of queueing already, and I've only done it about twice.

I think this is getting too long to be easily digestible! That's enough for now. :)

Saint Gaudens, c'est chez moi

Ok, I'm sick of words. ;p This will be mainly pix.

Nice little street. There are many similar to this.Looking, from town, down towards the station (and factory).

Collège LeClerc, where I'll spend 2 hours each week.


Entrance of Lycée de Bagatelle, where I'll be spending 8 hours a week.

My room @ Collège Didier Daurat. The lady in pink is Danielle, one of my associate teachers. The other, Hélène, looks after the finance side of things in the building. (Well, more or less. I don't quite understand.)
The view from my room... out to the 'Public Gardens.'

Closer to 'home': Paris - Toulouse

Left Paris early in the morning (@ train station at 7am and, what do you know, those armed soldiers that we'd seen @ the Eiffel tower and the Louvre were at the station too) and all agreed that travelling by train is much nicer than travelling by plane. Scenery started off a bit scrappy, but we were soon in the countryside! So many old buildings, or amazing church spires poking out above little villages. Sadly, sometimes you only got a glimpse from the train, as trees/a tunnel/hills often obscured some great views. Can't count the number of times that Dad was frantically trying to take a picture and was foiled by trees!!!

Arrived in Toulouse at about 2 and headed straight to our hotel. Had a bit of chill-out time, but then decided to go for a wander. Found the Saint Sérnin basilisk, which was awesome. Started trying to check out mobiles for me, so I'm easily contactable in France.

At about 5, we were pretty hungry, as we hadn't had lunch. Well, restaurant fail. Nowhere that we could find was serving anything but basic stuff like quiche or toasted sandwiches, and we really wanted a decent meal. We (ok, mainly me) were getting tired and grumpy. In the end, we stopped to have a drink (rather nice Frenchman at the bar, too), then ended up going to "La Mie Câline" to get filled rolls, pastries and Orangina.

Tiredness hit that night (and there was free internet at the hotel) so I had a night in. After a bit of a rest, Ma & Pa took to the streets, and found that they can get themselves gelato and go to the supermarket in France, without really speaking French.

Two Nights in Paris

Hm.

It wasn't a great welcome to France, actually, as it was wet and cold (and I'd already caught a cold somehow), our shuttle was late, then waited around for someone else, and then there was lots of traffic on our drive to the hotel! So, we landed about 6pm, and we arrived at our hotel about 9pm. And then we had to find some dinner, and try not to fall asleep at the table in the restaurant.

Luckily, we found somewhere just across from our hotel, and thoroughly enjoyed our meals.It was hard case: the waiter was chatting away with all his customers like old friends (which, maybe they were), the chef was sticking his head out of the kitchen door to watch the soccer, and one lady had a small dog in her bag!The next day... bus tour! How to see all the big sights as fast as poss, given that we only had the one day for sightseeing. To be honest, it was pretty hard to take it all in so quickly. Probably needed to do the tour about 3 times to take in all the info about the places we were going past. BUT, I do have pictures, so here are some of the famous places we went past:Our plan for the evening was to go down to the Seine, and go on a cruise; Mum was dead set on this. We did the local thing and went on the Métro. Aside from me panicking and thinking we had gone to the platform for the one going the wrong way (we hadn't), we were reasonably successful.

Boat cruise: not so successful. You could even say fail. We needed food first, so we wandered around (for quite a while) trying to find something. Ended up at a resto very, very close to the Eiffel tower (but trees blocking the view!) with a rather amusing waiter, who reminded me of my old boss from Take 5. Ie, he was giving us shit right from the start. Great meal there and, by the time we'd finished, it was too late for cruising, and we were all exhausted! Instead, just a quick walk past the sparkling tower, and back onto the Métro.

We Love Barcelona

Wow, very cool place. The favourite for me, Mum and Dad! (Even though it took the authorities about 2 hours to give me a piece of paper declaraing that I had arrived in the country.)
Dad & I got very trigger happy with our cameras because everywhere that we looked was worthy of a photo. Loved the old buildings, the water, the weather, the views across the city... It just had a really nice feel to it. We arrived when they were having their patron saint's festival (Mercè), so there were a few times when we stumbled upon music or some kind of performance, which was just taking place in the street. Managed to have tapas and paella for tea on our first night too, so felt that we were really fitting in!
Did another bus tour, which allowed us to see a lot of the city in a short time. Definitely need to share photos from the two bus stops where we got off.
Sagrada familia: Gaudí's big project, started hundreds of years ago, and still not finished. Apparently, Gaudí thought God wouldn't be too worried about how long it took. And it is magnificent; good things take time. ;p
Parc Güell: Gaudí again! Had lots of different levels, and I'm sure we only saw a small part of it. Nice to be in a green area, and there were stone overpasses, pathways, buskers scattered throughout, and fantastic views across Barcelona.


We also had a great hotel and room in the Barrí Gótico. We looked out (from our balcony) across a little square, with a fancy statue, and were close to the harbour. AND the man on reception was good about letting me practise my Spanish. The thing I love about visiting countries that speak another language is that you can get a real buzz out of doing something really simple, like asking for information about bus tours and understanding the answer! Then again, it may just be me, 'cos I'm a language nerd.