I’m now
stressing out a little bit because I’ve suddenly realized I only have four more
weeks in Fécamp left – where has the time gone? – and I have so much work to do yet (like, remember, that Year Abroad
essay I’m supposed to write? -.-). But, anyhow, I’ve had some interesting
experiences lately, so grab a cuppa and enjoy the post.
Going back
to work after the break was tough. We still did a couple fun things like
carving a pumpkin for the first time – Moni and I carved a super-cute smiley
–faced one which was the first pumpkin either of us ever carved; or went to
Courrier Cauchois to give the journalist some biscuits as a thank-you for
writing an article about the centre, and invited him to the Guy Fawkes Night at
the school on that same weekend. On the
Friday Moni and I went with Antoine to O’Bailly for a couple of drinks which
was nice. It was a bit weird at first because the place was so empty (mind you,
it was also really early to be fair) but it got better as the night went on and
Salomé happened to come too so she joined us for a bit. We did leave early
though and by midnight I was tucked into bed, I was tired!
On the
Saturday it was Guy Fawkes Night. We made a guy with the children during the
lessons and then Moni and I were in charge of baking potatoes for the event. It
was really cold and had been drizzling on-and-off all day, so we wrapped up
warm and headed to the centre at around 6pm to prepare the quiz and telethon
table and help set up. Despite the bad weather, a fair amount of people showed
up, not only adult students but also children with their families. We had a
lovely evening sharing food and drinks (Manu made sausages on the barbecue)
and, of course, burning the guy and playing games with the children –
sparklers, making s’mores and blowing bubbles. We chatted, danced and played
until around 11, when most people had left or were leaving and it was time to
help tidy up. I’d say the night was a success and we even made it into the
local newspaper!
The next
two days I pretty much spent sorting out lessons and the Toussaint blog posts,
which took ages. Believe me, guys, you’ve no idea how much time it takes to run
a blog! Tuesday was the American Election, aka. the world’s end. I had the day
off so I just ran some errands and Skyped Erin while I baked a cake since it
was my birthday the following day and I wanted to bring some cake to the
office. I don’t particularly enjoy cooking, and I had some trouble taking the
cake out of the tin, but I think it turned out pretty good! I spent the rest of
the day researching and doing some reading for my essay, for which I am very,
very behind schedule. My only consolation is that I have January to write it,
but I really need to do some field work before I leave…
9TH
NOVEMBER – MY 20TH BIRTHDAY! It was really strange to come to terms
with the fact that I am no longer a teenager, but on the Wednesday I woke up to
lots of loving messages on social media and whatsapp congratulating me for my
20th birthday. Izzy singing in French totally made my day and made
me laugh out loud! Unfortunately, I also woke up to the bad news of Trump being
elected President of the US. I really didn’t think that would happen (nor did I
ever think Brexit would win either, but there you have it), so it was some bitter
news to hear. I didn’t let that (or the rainy weather) ruin my day though. I
opened some presents that Moni gave me and some that I received on the mail
(lovely postcards and drawings by the way! Thank-you everybody!) and then
headed out for a long morning at the school. Work was alright; I got to play
with the babies and I was even sung Happy Birthday by one group of kids! Once I
was done for the day, I came back home, took a shower and chilled in my room
for a bit before we left to go to my host’s parents’ house, who are really
nice. We had some appéritifs and a
bottle of champagne with sirop before walking to the Chinese
restaurant. We were surprised by a massive group of teens taking up half of the
restaurant, but we had our reserved table at the back. It was Liam’s first time
at a Chinese and my first time at the buffet in Fécamp, but the food was really
good! We had some lychee cocktails (the blue curaçao one was so yummy!) and
some wine to accompany the food – veggies, sushi, fried fish and noodles on my
part! I opened my hosts’ presents and while we were eating the teens came round
speaking a strange language which turned out to be Italian! We saw Abigail who
told us they were some exchange students that had come to her high school and I
got to speak to one of them – they were from Umbria, all really nice but were
leaving the following day and left the restaurant before us, so not much
Italian to practice… After dinner the lights went out in the whole restaurant
and, suddenly, here comes my host with all the Italian students singing me
‘Tanti Auguri’! It was such a pleasant surprise! My host had run out to get
them before they left and convinced them to sing! The apple cake was really good and it was
overall a lovely evening and day!
On Thursday
we went over to Liam’s for dinner. We had a chilled night eating pizza and
ice-cream, playing pinball and watching Dancing with the Stars French version.
It was a lot of fun but we went home after that because I really had to get
some sleep for the long weekend ahead of me – the kino challenge!
Friday was
the start of the 5th Festival Eurydice du Court-métrage (also
Armistice Day so it was a public holiday). I’d signed up to take part in the
48-hour kino challenge, which consisted of forming a team on the day and
creating a short film from scratch to give in on Sunday morning. We would be
given the genre, a location to film in and an object to incorporate, and had no
idea who would be in our teams. I showed up at Centre Saint-Exupery which
served as a base, where I met with Salomé and were explained the rules. We each
had to introduce ourselves and say what role we’d like to have in the team, so
as to be able to form different teams. I went as an actress since my edition
skills are unfortunately quite limited. There was quite a lot of people; a lot
of them professionals with proper equipment and all. I felt really amateur but
Salomé and I joined a team with Steve and Philippe, two film-makers from Le
Havre, and Maxime, a sound technician from near Rouen, and so created ‘Équipe
A’ (I know, I know, so original!). After the lucky draw we ended up with these
constraints: dramatic-comedy to be filmed in les Estacades (the light-houses at
the entry to the port) and all the teams had to include a galet or pebble from the beach. No time constraints other than the
48 hours we had to come up with the idea, film it, and edit it, but none
concerning the duration of the actual film.
It was really intense. Coming up
with a plot was hard because our genre was so vast, but we managed… We spent
the rest of the evening filming in various places and ended up at O’Bailly for
another scene and some brainstorming… Lorenzo and Stepfany joined us later for
some drinks too so we went to bed quite late. It wasn’t a good move because we
met early the next day and we were all knackered. The rain and cold didn’t help
much, but we managed to finish filming the rest of the scenes by 4pm and then
Salomé and I were done. It was now the guys’ turn to edit it and add the music.
It was my first time in front of a camera and we didn’t have any script which
meant that it was all improv, which was kind of hard. Also, I found it so
tiring to keep up with them speaking in French! They spoke really quickly and
the concentration I needed to follow the conversation burned me up really fast.
It was, despite this, a great weekend to improve my French.
On Saturday
afternoon I took a much needed nap before heading over to Lorenzo’s for dinner
with Moni and Liam. It was a nice evening. We met his friend Ian and had rôti and played different games (proud
to say I’m actually good at guessing films from their soundtracks – they were
pretty impressed!) and then ended up playing a role-play game called Dead of
Winter. It took us a while to grasp the rules and it was quite late when we
started to play so we didn’t finish the game because Liam fell asleep, but I
really liked it. I enjoy role-play games but unfortunately it’s not usually my
friends’ cup of tea, so I have to find other people to play with. Anyhow, on
Sunday morning we went to hand in our short film, ‘Camille’. We were the only ones to hand it in on time
from all six groups! Then we just chilled together until the showcase rolled
up. Équipe A had a couple beers at a bar but I was so exhausted (and maybe a
bit hangover) that I was feeling quite ill so I passed on that. Liam and Moni
came to watch the film (which was the first time for Salomé and me too, because
they had denied us watching it earlier…). Unfortunately, my hosts arrived late
so they didn’t make it to our film, but they did get to watch the other ones
and the prizes for the shorts in competition. It was a nice night. Our short
was really funny and amateur in comparison to the other ones, but we are really
proud of the result of our work in 48 hours! All the films from the kino were
amazing! Here is a link to it, because I know you are dying to watch it
yourself now!
After the
showcase I was really tired and had a splitting headache and was feeling like I
was coming down with a cold, so unfortunately I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate
and I had to come home for an early night in which I hardly got any sleep
because of the fever… On Monday I was feeling slightly better so I managed to
do some cleaning and go to work but I was still feeling quite ill so I had
another early night to recover from the exhausting weekend and amount of rain
(those outdoor scenes in the rain definitely did not help a lot…). Then on
Tuesday I slept in and felt much better. I ran some errands in town and cooked
dinner as we were having Liam, Antoine and Vincent over. I’m proud to say I
made my first paella ever and it was a total success!
Liam had never eaten it
before and he thought it was delicious and so did the others. So a little proud
pat-on-the-back to myself! I got a mojito bottle for my birthday and we drank
some 2016 Beaujolais Nouveau which is a special wine from Beaujolais that goes
on sale the third Thursday of November. We were lucky to have Antoine supply us
with a bottle two days in advance! Perks of working at a cave du vin. The whole expectation around the wine is an actual
thing, check this out: http://www.thelocal.fr/20161117/ten-things-to-know-about-beaujolais-nouveau-wine-france It was really fruity and sweet;
personally, I’m still not convinced though. We played cards for a while and
then they left. Successful evening meal re-count: 2 for the girls, 1 for the
guys.
The rest of
the week has been particularly intense and tiring since I still have to catch
up on some sleep. Work has been fine. We had to change James the mannequin into
a Sherlock Holmes outfit which was no easy deed since his clothes wouldn’t come
off! It was such a hilarious situation trying to trip naked that thing! And
then on Thursday night Moni, Liam and I went to the cinema to watch ‘Fantastic
Beasts’. It was such a good film. I didn’t know what to expect coming into the
cinema since I’d barely even paid attention to the trailer but I really loved
it. It’s extremely different from the Harry Potter films and there is a sweet
innocence to it, but the actors are amazing and both the beasts and the
characters are so loveable. You should totally go check it out! Also, we
watched it in French and I couldn’t get over the fact that a ‘wand’ in French
is called a ‘baguette magique’! It’s hilarious!
Finally, on
Sunday (which was voting day by the way) I was invited to spend the day with
Claire, a student from the Centre, and her family. She picked me up in the
morning and I had lunch with her family: herself, her parents-in-law, her
husband and her two daughters. It was so nice of her; we had a proper French
Sunday meal with aperitif and
boeuf-bourguignon accompanied by wine and cider. Her house is a lovely
country-side manor and they have a Grand Dane dog which is the size of a pony,
not even kidding. After lunch we went to Fauville-en-Caux to watch a series of
sketches titles “Tous nos voeux de Bonheur” about couple life performed by an
amateur troupe from Goderville named the Scènes Maritimes. It was quite amusing
and a good way of improving French. If I’d know of their existence earlier, I
would’ve tried to join myself! After the show we returned to the house for the goûter or tea-time with two other
friends. The apple cake was superb! Overall it was a lovely day and I am so
grateful for the invitation; it was a great opportunity to practice French and
have a peek at French life-style.
 |
| It's been so cold this week it even hailed! |
I am
looking forward to the next few weeks that I have left in Fécamp. Still lots of
interesting things planned! But at the same time, I wish time would go by
slower!
À bientot!
Zoe
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