Toussaints holiday week.

Hello again. The most exciting news to start with I think. Yesterday I rang up the bus company all by myself to ask about the timetable in the school holidays. I asked a nice young woman if they had someone there who spoke English and she said that they did but what was it I wanted to know anyway? So I told her and we had a bit of a chat and I found out what I needed to know!!! Are you impressed or what? Actually, for me the best bit wasn’t the attempt at speaking French, because it was pretty ordinary really. What I was pleased about was that I had the confidence to ring at all. I seem to have turned a bit of a corner, or climbed over a hump, or something. Which I’m sure you are just as relieved about as I am. “Oh thank goodness. We might now be saved from her self obsessed ramblings!” However, I guess in a way that’s what blogs are – self obsessed ramblings! And of course I’m the sort of person who just talks though thoughts and feelings. At least you know I’m not hiding anything. I guess in a way it's like inviting you to share my labour pains and be there at the birth as well. And as that miracle aint gonna occur, this is as close as it gets! Lol. And that’s also not to say that I won’t have more bad days and feel miserable again. But at least I am feeling quite human again and able to go to the supermarket! And I might as well eat, because when I was feeling pretty down I didn’t eat much at all and I didn’t lose any weight!! Your emails are a great help, incidentally. Fank u!
The only thing that really keeps nagging at me is how much I already miss Sienna and Isla and how much they are going to change while I’m away. Hopefully I can get Skype up and running.
Anyway, it’s the holidays. Schools have two weeks but at uni (the fac, they say here) we just have one week and then next week we have exams. Which I have already mentioned. This afternoon I am going to Paris on the TGV. I then have to get the Metro, and change lines, in order to get to the hotel. I am very nervous about that, but at least I feel up to trying. I just hope it isn’t too hard or it will pop my new little confidence bubble.
The second important thing is that, no, the blasted internet still isn’t connected, but I do have a landline phone! My number is 0033549111845. So that’s quite exciting. I have already had a very welcome phone call from Gillian. So if you want to ring at any time, please feel free to do so. We have just come off daylight saving and I’m pretty sure we are exactly 12 hours behind New Zealand. I get back from Paris on Friday afternoon.
OK. On Saturday I went into town and met my friend Anna and we wandered round for quite a bit. Then we sat in a café and tried to visualise situations that might be tossed at us when we have our oral exam. We are doing it in pairs. And we practised acting out little scenarios. Well, talking them through. It was good, but for all that my tongue will once again become all knotted up and I will be lost for words. Hard to believe, I know! This is French we’re talking about here folks!
On Sunday morning I went for a walk with Marie-Hélène and Christian. I was a bit taken aback at one point when we were walking along a well-used track beside some paddocks, and there were two chaps with rifles, hunting rabbits! They were so close to us, and right in the open, and for me it was pretty darned scary. OK, it was sort of the country, but within spitting distance of residential areas. I was just really grateful that I don’t have buck teeth.
Just before lunch I got picked up by Sophie and Julie, the two daughters of Any, an English teacher at the lycee. Also with them were Sophie’s two daughters, Salome and Angel. They were absolutely delightful and could speak a few words of English. They had also practised saying, “Alison, will you teach us the haka?” I can help people with the haka, but I think it’s easier to just look on You Tube. Anyway, we all went to Any’s for lunch. She and her husband Jean-Claude live in a little village about 15 kms out of Poitiers, called Beruges. In fact, Any is the deputy mayor! It was a lovely day. Nice food and conversation, and then we went for a walk. It’s an old Gallo-Roman site and we walked down a track where the Romans had created a pathway and placed stones for the carts. And the slabs of rock are still there. Amazing. Just amazing.
Oh yes, Jean-Claude used to play rugby and we reminisced about the French rugby team that came to New Zealand in, when was it – 1961? Guy and André Boniface, Pierre Albaladejo et al. For some reason they have really stuck in my memory.
So a good weekend. It sure beats reading in an enclosed space for 48 hours! Indeed my studio hasn’t got any bigger, but I’m trying hard to live with it. All “student” accommodation is much the same from what I have seen. I would really like to be in Centre Ville (middle of town) where all the action is, but at least here I have the support of Christian and M-H. And many of the apartments in town, it being the old part of Poitiers, look like they don’t get the sun at all. So that’s the story.
Yesterday I had a practice run at getting the bus to the station. I had to go and pick up tickets for my trip coming up in November. (Going to visit Ian in Italy!) So I did that, and also tried to change my tickets for Paris today so I could go a bit earlier, as I need to find the NZ Embassy there so I can vote. (Well, when I was talking to Helen a little while ago I promised her I would! True!) But they were ‘no change’ tickets. Which doesn’t really matter. If I don’t get to the embassy I think I can download voting forms and send them off.
Oh yes, that reminds me – a little bit of political stuff here. Salome is 7 and obviously quite bright. However, she has recently started getting quite stressed as she sometimes only gets 17 out of 20 for her tests! She thinks she is letting her family down. Yes, regular standardised testing. The Sarkosy government stopped the system of teaching and learning in primary schools which involved the kids investigating stuff, in a manner, from what I can gather, similar to NZ. It’s now about standards and regular testing which no doubt encourages the teachers to teach to the tests. And I have heard a little whisper that John Key is planning something similar. What does he think that will achieve? Teachers already do their best. Having tests does not make the kids become more able. Students with learning difficulties for reasons of heredity, environment or whatever will continue to have learning difficulties. No more warm learning environments, just competitive learning of facts. And I like kids knowing ‘stuff’ as much as the next person. Probably more. But these kids are babies!
Anyway, I have probably just just lost some regular subscribers. :-)
Late yesterday afternoon M-H and I went to the movies - my first French movie experience. I can't remember the title, but it was based on an Agatha Christie novel, so the very blatant cases of over acting seemed apt somehow for that genre. There was also a lot of bosom groping which I don't think Agatha Christie had written about. I actually really enjoyed it, and had no trouble following the general idea of the story. But to be honest I couldn't really follow what the actors were saying. But I do love the movies and hope we go again soon. I won't be buying a tub of ice cream however - it cost the equivalent of NZ $9.
Time to go. I need to pack my little weekend suitcase I bought on Saturday. At home I have got a terrific weekend suitcase I bought once from Crazy Clarke’s in Australia. It cost the princely sum of $11, from memory. I use it a lot, but obviously I don’t have it here so I had to get something else. It’s a nice wee case, and red, but it certainly wasn’t $11.
The photos show Julie, Salome, Sophie and Angel on the ancient Roman road,with Any just out sight; and the family posing with a chateau in the background. Apparently there are 12 chateaux in the district.
Have a good week.
Love Moi.