YA-3: finally going out and La Rose 2016!

Bonjour! Las week was absolutely hectic – we went from not having any real plans outside of work to going out non-stop throughout the whole week!

On Monday it was Monika’s 21^st birthday, so before going to my fitness class I left her a little gift on the stairs for her to wake up to. I think it’s important to pay attention to the little details – it can make other people’s day a little bit better, particularly if they are away from home. After working I ran some errands and went out with Moni to do some shopping. We also wanted to go out for coffee but it was pouring outside and most places were closed which was surprising on a Monday morning, so we passed on that one. After lunch I did a bit of YA work before going into the centre for my classes. Once done with work I dashed back home to get changed and ready. Stepfany picked us up at 7 to go for drinks; she took us to a cool bar in the centre which opened not long ago. Then we popped by Moni’s dance lesson to give out some cake she had made and, to her surprise, they all remembered it was her birthday and had got her presents and cake and even champagne! It was so cute! They sang happy birthday and she blew out the candles and everything! At 8:30 we had to be back in the centre to meet Liam, our hosts, and their son and girlfriend before heading to Chez Nounoute for dinner. We had some glasses of champagne to celebrate before heading to the port. Dinner was lovely – I had mussels à la marinière with white wine and they even had a cake with a candle for dessert! They gave Monika  some presents and I believe she had a great time just like the rest of us, which is what counts, especially when you are away from home! I really cannot stress enough how nice people are and have been around here, they have made my time in Fécamp so memorable!

On Tuesday I spent the day working and planning lessons – believe me, it takes longer than I thought it would… And then after I finished I came back home and took a quick shower and got ready to meet with Antoine and Vincent to go out for drinks. We went to the Casino near the beach and then back home we tried a mango and apricot rum they gave Moni as a present. They are super nice guys, glad to have finally met people our age haha

On Wednesday I worked all morning. The babies were being particularly tough with a lot of crying but most children are lovely and it is a lot of fun to teach them, they are always happy to take part in whatever crazy activity we present them with! We also popped to the College near the Abbey where there was supposed to be one of the American students on exchange. It took us a couple of tries before we actually managed to get in, only to me told that there was no assistant this year… However, later in the week they contacted us from the other high school and apparently there is one student who we hope to meet soon. Fingers crossed because we’ve been trying for weeks now! This place is very small so the more people we met the better. In the evening we met with Salomé for dinner. She took us to a restaurant by the beach called Le Reidroc – all the staff were super nice and the food was amazing! We had some fried squid rings as entrée and then I had some parmentier de canard which was basically mashed potato with duck and a thick gravy-like honey sauce and salad leaves on the side SO GOOD. I am legit going to put on so much weight over this year… It was a lovely evening and we got to speak a lot of French which is ace.

On Thursday I got my Erasmus grant pay! Yay! However, there was an error during the currency exchange process and we got over-paid, so it was a stressful time for the office trying to sort out the correct amounts and us having to return money. Anyway, that is now sorted. During the lessons we played Stop The Bus which reminded me so much of my English lessons in Harrow House in Swanage! It is such a fun game – twist for us assistants though, we had to fill the categories in French! After work we had dinner at Antoine’s – raclette. Got to try French dishes, right? It was a lovely evening (electrical problems with the machine included) and we ended up playing cards until quite late.

On Friday it was my day off so I spent the morning doing the relevant house chores and then chilled at home and took a nap. In the evening we went to the Apéro-Rose which was a sort of party organized by the Ladies Circle ’62 of Fécamp in order to raise money and awareness to fight breast cancer. It’s Octobre Rose in the town by the way, so the Mairie is lit up pink and there are quite a lot of things going on if you keep an eye out for them. We had to wear something pink so Moni lent me one of her shirts (I literally don’t own anything pink) and we headed to the party. The party was nice; we had a drink and there was some music and tons of people. However, we were really tired and we unfortunately couldn’t really understand what was being said through the speakers so we left fairly early and had an early night which was much needed after four days straight of late nights.

On Saturday it was my day off but the weather was horrible and I pretty much spent the day in my pyjamas. It wasn’t a wasted day though, working from bed is such a treat ;) It had been ages since I’d spent the whole day in my PJs and it was good to have a day off and just relax. After dinner Moni and I met with Salomé, Stépfany and Liam to go to O’Bailly, which is the bar I’d mentioned earlier. There we met Salomé’s neighbour Adrien and had a great night having a couple of drinks and playing darts. The owner is really nice and it was the first time I played darts – must say I got quite competitive at one point and even won one game! At around 2am we thought it was time to wrap it up since we were running the marathon the next morning, but I think we should definitely do that again!

On the Sunday when the alarm went off it was way too early for us two night owls! However we got out of bed and got ready for the La Rose 2016 marathon. Turns out we could’ve slept in an extra hour but nonetheless our host came over as we had planned and he brought hot croissants to wake us up… The run itself was great – so many people showed up! Over 3k runners and hundreds of people cheering on the sides, the place was packed with people in pink shirts supporting the cause. We joined the foule and did a short warm-up in which we already got covered with powder paint from the Colour Runners… Fortunately, the rained backed off until the end of the race, so the race itself went well and it was even kind of sunny for Normandy :P I ran the 5k in about 25min which was not bad at all! Everybody was just there for the fun! It was a very rewarding experience, not only because I proved to myself that I can run and not pass out at the end but also because it helped with an important cause and it was amazing to see how engaged everybody was. At the finish line it took us a whole hour to find our host, but aside from that everybody there was super happy and there was food, water, music and different stalls at the arrival point. It was a lot of fun!

After the run we headed home for a shower, some lunch and rest. I Skyped with Sara who told me about her Erasmus experience in Dortmund – the ups and the downs. I guess it will sort of be the same when I go to Siena… Fingers crossed the problems will be minimum but I haven’t heard amazing things about Italian Unis’ Administration… Then I took a long, long and well-deserved nap and ate some cereal. After waking up I decided to watch TV and procrastinate like a pro. Turns out, our host showed up at our door at 18:45 proposing us to go to the cinema to watch L’Odysée at 7pm. Impromptu decision but off we went in fifteen minutes – the film was really good, a tad long at some points but I quite liked it – great French practice.

On the following Tuesday our hosts were celebrating their 30^th anniversary so we had some champagne with the adult class and listened to stories of how they met – so hilarious! However, we had to leave quickly since we were having Liam, Antoine and Vincent over for dinner. Moni had prepared ginger noodles with chicken and chocolate mousse. Props to her because the food was AMAZING! The evening was lovely as expected; they are a lot of fun to be with! And then I decided it would be a great idea to make myself a Snapchat and jump onto the bandwagon – let me know if you want my nickname!

And finally, Wednesday was my last day at work before the Toussaint break for two weeks so we had a staff meeting and planned the next ‘term’ and timetables and all that jazz. I spent the rest of the day organizing and phoning up the Housing Agency in Bath (fourth year accommodation business) and talking to Dad on the phone since he was coming to visit on the following day (so excitiiiiiing!). Same for the Thursday. I was alone in the house because Moni left early to go back home to Glasgow so I used my morning to run some errands and do some chores and in the afternoon I met with Liam to go to the cinema. We watched blockbuster ‘Jack Reacher 2’; not bad but not amazing either. Dad’s train had been delayed and his suitcase had been lost, but he finally arrived in Le Havre at half past ten at night after a long and stressful trip and I went in the car with my hosts’ son and his girlfriend to pick him up. It was so good to be with him again! Surreal to reunite in this small corner of France!

Keep tuned for my next post – Dad and I are planning to visit some towns in Normandy and Bretagne road-trip style so the next entry looks promising! Adventures and pictures to come!

xx

YA-2: discovering Fécamp and crashing a farewell party!

Bonjour! I’ve now been in Normandy for a whole month, where has time gone? Here is what I’ve been up to over the last fortnight…

I’ve now joined a fitness class on Monday mornings at 9am. Each time I have to wake up early to go to it I feel like maybe I should’ve joined a later one… But then the exercise gets me active and I have the whole morning free to do other things instead of staying in bed #lazylife Anyway, I was aching with sore muscles the whole week after the first class, but I really enjoyed it. The coach is really nice and I am learning to use equipment which I’d never done before. Time to get fit! Another thing that I’ve been meaning to do is to go out for runs but a) I have no force of will to get out of bed in the morning and plunge into the cold and b) I am lacking some proper equipment (it’s not as warm round here as back home…). I have indeed done some running over the past few weeks, but certainly not as much as I would have liked. And with a marathon against cancer looming over next week, I think I’m going to do a lot of walking the marathon rather than running the marathon…

I’ve been doing a lot of house chores, lesson planning, cooking… that take up quite some time over the week. Plus, now that I live in a cold and rainy place again (although the weather has been really nice lately, not going to lie), I have to use the launderette again. Tumble drier for life despite it being annoying to have to drag the wet clothes all the way to the Laundromat. And, to compensate for the uninteresting chores, I have watched a couple of films too. ‘The Lady in the Van’ was a surprise, I definitely did not expect the plot to be what it is and it made me sad and happy at the same time. Definitely recommend; with Maggie Smith playing a sassy lady yet again, what could go wrong? I also watched ‘The Bridget Jones’ Diary’ which I had never seen before. Definitely a feel-good movie which I would have enjoyed more if the Internet connection hadn’t made it freeze every five minutes… And, finally, ‘Love & Other Drugs’ - again, one whose plot surprised me; I really enjoyed it.

Following my neck issue on my second week here, I went to the doctor to get a check-up and certificate for my fitness class. I am fortunately now recovered but my neck is always tense and so is my back so I also went to the physiotherapist. First time over there but it was good, she cracked my back and sent me home.

But, hang on. What adventures did I get up to these past two weeks you might ask? Well, a couple. We attempted to find the American students on exchange here and drove all the way to their apartments in the outskirts of Fécamp. They live in an apartment complex with an automatic gate so we had no way to get in since the doorbells did not work. We managed to slide in when a car rolled by and opened the garage door. Next, finding their apartment. We knew which one it was (or has been the past years) but the thing was, nobody was home. And we had no way of leaving them a note because we didn’t have anything to write. Fantastic. And, to top it off, we couldn’t get out either because we didn’t have the remote for the garage… We resorted to ringing at people’s houses until we found a guy who answered but apparently he didn’t have the remote either. After planning our escape and even thinking of calling for a ladder, the same car that had driven in appeared but to leave this time, so we managed to get out! It was a really funny situation, but still no news from the Americans!

On Friday the 30^th it was my day off so I planned a couple of things apart from the usual like cooking and going to the supermarket. The day was fortunately sunny so I walked around quite a lot. Early in the morning I decided to look for the Marché aux Poissons or fish market in the harbour. Fate had it that the route I’d chosen was cut short by road works so I had to detour and take a longer path but on the way I stumbled upon the Fontaine du Précieux Sang. Apparently, legend has it that a fig branch carrying the blood of Jesus washed up on the shore of Fécamp and the reliquary was used to be housed in this place, where a natural spring flowed. The building is now closed, but up until in the 19^th century many pilgrims came and they even set some rail tracks to transport the masses to and from the Fontaine! The more you know! The market was good, it was quite small and there were all sorts of fish. It reminded me of the fish counter back at home, oh I love fresh fish! After that I ran some errands in town before lunch and Skyped Lara while I cooked.

That afternoon I headed into town and passed a philatélie shop in the town centre. I always stop by the crowded window to look at all the quirky stuff they sell there and this time it was open, so I purchased a 1792 check! Such a great buy! The man was really nice and bizarre looking, just as you’d imagine, short with glasses and long white hair. I chatted to him a bit (from the door because there was literally no space to go inside because the space was taken up by mountains of papers and medals and coins…) and popped in later in the week to buy a République Française medal. He definitely recognized me and I am for sure taking Dad over.

After that I headed to the Library which has quite strange opening times. I read the newspapers and inspected the collection – they have quite a good range of books to be fair! Thing is, I can’t borrow any because I can’t sing up without a proof of residence… Regular trips to the Library it is then… On my way back I stopped to read about the hospitals set up in Fécamp during the Great War near the Monument to the Fallen. It was very interesting!

The following day was the opening of the Rigisse’s photo exhibition at the Mill, so Moni and I went to help serve drinks and food and Liam played the clarinet. It was a lovely evening – so many people came over and Rigisse sold quite a lot of photographs. The punch was a hit and we didn’t have a single moment to ourselves the whole evening. We met a lot of people and finished the night sharing pizzas with friends and family and even some guitar and clarinet duet playing. It was great!

We also spent the Sunday at the Mill, this time preparing hot drinks and biscuits to sell to the visitors since the Mill was open for guided tours throughout the day. The biscuit selling was a bit of a failure, but we did speak some French, sorted out the timetables and explored the Mill ourselves and, despite not making much money, we did have a good time together. After leaving the Mill we headed for the beach and had some chips while the sun set. Strange way to spend our Sunday but it was nice nonetheless!

On Tuesday night I met Liam to go to the avant-prémiere of ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’. The film was amazing; Tim Burton never disappoints! Definitely not for young children but I really liked it. And I also managed to follow through the whole two hours of French dubbed movie successfully!

On Friday, again free day, I did some chores in the morning and then headed out in the afternoon. I visited the Hotel du Grand Cerf which I thought was some sort of exhibition place but it turns out it holds the Archives and has a small information centre. I then went into town to visit a small secluded garden in the middle of the centre-ville (flooded with pre-teens too by the way) and did some shopping in town – got myself a nice black bag and a microfiber blanket and fleece hoodie to keep me warm, yay! 

In the evening I went to the Speed Meeting organized by the Centre. The idea was that, like speed dating, we had 5-10’ conversations in English in pairs before swapping around. It was a lovely event and I met quite a few people, mostly English speakers from the area. We also met Lara who is our age and lives around here so hopefully will be meeting her over the weekend to visit one of the nearby towns! We had some pizzas after the event and, right before we were packing up, our host said he’d been invited to someone’s farewell party and asked if Moni and I would like to come. Of course, we agreed! So we crashed the farewell party of this guy who I’d spoken to for five minutes and Moni didn’t even know. It was quite awkward at the start because we didn’t know anybody and we had been literally thrown in the deep end with everybody talking super quick in French. But, we stuck together, asked to be spoken to slower and made it through the awkward first hour. Everybody turned out to be super-nice and we finally met some young people with whom to hang out! So after some wine drinking (so cliché, but wine and cigarettes are so French), pet snake feeding show, jokes about someone’s traditional French shirt and singing along to a guitar, we went back home at 2:30am.

On Saturday Moni and I were exhausted after the late night the previous day but we had work and pretty much chilled at home the rest of the day. Sunday was similar, I did some work in the morning and after lunch we went on a guided tour around the Abbatiale, Palais Ducal and Mur about William the Conqueror. It was pretty cold and the guide loved to talk and was prone to tangents but I find it very interesting to hear the French point of view on the Battle of Hastings, so it was worth it.

Next week proves to be quite interesting with Moni’s birthday tomorrow and a couple of meet-ups with the people we met at the party. In addition to that, there is the Weekend en Rose with different events and, of course, the marathon! I will keep you posted!