Les virrages

They haven't been the only people skiing lately... I finally tried my hand at the truc this weekend here though unlike them I didn't have to travel far. An hour an a half in the bus was all it took to get me and my fellow assistant buddies aka les trois graces, qui savent faire la luge to our slopes of choice! There was certainly no shortage of laughs, nor falls... Free accomodation and lessons were swapped for home cooked food... a wonderful exchange à mon avis! Our teachers were 2 middle-aged french divorcees who worked at the school we all teach at, one silent, one not so silent, both good teachers, both with a million stories to tell. I now know all the ski jargon in french but not in english!

My skiing highlights

- I had red skis! I think that's pretty cool don't you?! :P
- la vitesse! This was however was a cause for a recurring problem, I couldn't quite work out how to regulate it. I would just accelerate and accelerate and had to throw myself to the ground because I couldn't stop.
- Finally at the end of our second and last morning, learning how to stop!
- Becoming an expert at picking myself up again after falling

Observations:

And I suddenly realised that Grenoble has become, without my realising, a home. Home number 3 perhaps, but a home nonetheless! We found ourselves walking along the road one day, chatting in french, remarking on the number of étrangères, especially anglophones at the station de ski... before remembering that we are étrangères... because we lived in Grenoble and were speaking french, we'd forgotten that we were.

The French really know how to enjoy the simple pleasures, i.e eating! 2 hours spent over 3/4 course meals always finished off with a café (tea pour moi) is most definitely the way forward! And they even manage to do it during the working week! Most banks, shops and offic es are closed from 12 till 2 so people can go home eat with their families and head back into the work again! Once you get used to the strange opening hours, adjust your eating patterns to it, and stop turning up at banks and finding them to be most annoyingly closed, you can't help but love it!

Essentially it seems people are no different no matter where they're from.

Oh and did I mention that mountains are beautiful?!

Das Leben der Anderen

I saw this on Friday with french subtitles and wanted to blog about it, to encourage you all to see it because it was such an interesting, moving and well-made film based in the same era as this film which I also love but which is of an utterly different genre, but was distressed to find that google yields no results of the film showing in Britain... yet (though I might be wrong, let me know)! What I was particuarly struck by was the development of the very vivid, very real characters. I was made to like, dislike, empathise, understand, grow to like without even realising... So I'm encouraging you in advance... when "The Life of Others" is released in some manner or form in the UK, go and see it!

Bullet Points are Beautiful!

I just wrote a beautifully bullet-pointed email and realised that it's been a while since I've blogged using bullet points and feel that I need to up my usage of them once again as...

a. I feel the quality of my presentation in blogposts has diminished as a result of not using them
b. They are just sooo delectible
c. They prevent me from rambling too much
d. If I do succomb, they make my rambles accessible to people with ordinary concentration spans

So here is my last week (and a bit) in bullet points

Orchestra
- 2 concerts down 2 to go
- rehearsals eveeeery night! (one skived)
- one spectactular opera
- many amaaaazing singers
- lots of fatigue (sore back and sore eyes = not good)
- one giant boite of nutella = happy french people and lots of pleasure
- a fair portion of banter (we cellos know how to do banter even when we are naaaackered!)

Teaching
- 2 exceedingly hyperactive classes (had to send 5 kids out of one because I couldn't hear anything I was saying)
- 4 exceedingly wonderful enthusiastic classes with a good sense of humour
- 1 exceedingly bright student with one of those perfect utopian middle class families who are all fluent english speakers, open minded, cook chestnut cakes and never eat at MacDonalds, who I just started teaching privately (a happy easy money earner)

Church
- 1 youth group weekend away = snow and huge open fires and energetic franglais speakers and giant raclettes and peace :)
- lots of getting challenged
- 1 Sunday lunch consumed with a swiss family

Phone calls to Scotland
- Several varying from 10 minutes whilst stuffing food in my mouth to 4 hours

Sleeping
- well

Miscellaneous
- Random communal meals consumed - 2
- Flatmates spoken to - 2 on 2 occasions
- Supermarket trips - 1
- Post office trips - 2
- Internet - time consuming (literally)
- Running around like a headless chicken = a frequent occurence
- Drinking tea - a not too infrequent pleasure
- Laughing - another not too infrequent pleasure

Total hours spent on
- Teaching - 9 hours
- Orchestra - 28 hours (!)

Lessons to be learnt here
- Don't play in a french orchestra for an opera that lasts for 3 hours.
- Bullet Points are Beautiful!

froide

It's oh so cold!
So icicle cold
Still the cheese won't lose it's mould
In Grenoooooble


I feel silly :)

Constants

Was having an interesting chat yesterday about Québéçois and how they still use a lot of lexicon dating back to 17th/18th century french which they don't use here in France anymore. It started me reflecting on how quickly things that seem fairly solid and constant such as language, change, often before we even notice. It seems even more apparent to me looking at the french language because it isn't my mother tongue. Reading Molière last year in uni was tough... almost incomprehensible as the language had changed so much. French people now find Québéçois almost incomprehensible partly because of their use of dated phrases! Crazy!
I look at languages that change with time, mountains that erode, snow that melts, weather systems that are unreliable... I look at my life; how I can never be sure of the future, near or far, how fragile I am, how fragile we all are, being human and all...

And I look at my God, my rock, at His unfailing love and compassion... and I remember that He never changes, even when everything else around me does.

And to think we are able to have peace with this God...!!!

The only response I can think of comes in the form of one of my favourite belter hymns. It may have been written over 2 centuries ago yet it still rings true and relevant today! :)

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Edward Mote (1797-1874)

la luge!

Despite this I finally made it to some snow

An hour and a half on a bus took us to a station de ski in fact


Yes, that's right... "station de ski"



This is what happens when it hasn't snowed for a week and a half and the snow from early January is starting to melt, and into these adverse conditions (snow of the kind that draws blood when you fall on it, beating hot sun) 3 relatively skint, multinational, complete beginners are set on a station de ski for the day...


We were the only people over the age of about 10 sleighing there that day. When I mention age I talk of the physical and measurable kind... not of the mental kind :)

These errors made my day...!

When I explained the word "dinner ladies" one boy chirped up... "Il n'y a pas de dinner manies?"

"When you are popular lots of people come with hit him" (and knock on your door) had to be demonstrated before I understood what was trying to be said

"He is hating fishing" (hates)

"They give lots of things to we" (us)

And this beautiful argument made in a debate "Friends vs Family" made for Family -
I can hit my brother but if I hit my friend he re-hit me!" (hits me back)

Ah the joys of silly hyperactive 13 year olds with good imaginations :) heeheehee

The delights of le fromage français

Having just been satisfied (yet again) by a delicious (and completely free lunch) à la Grenobloise I feel led to inform you readers of some of the delights that are the cheesy specialities of Alpine France cuisine...

La Tartiflette


Common eaten at winter time

Made with sliced potato, lardons (bits of bacon) and lots and lots of melted reblochon cheese and who knows what else...

Number of times consumed by Dish = 3
(Today at school in the staff room where they had a new years fête, twice au marché de nöel with orchestra peeps)

Verdict = Simple and delicious but over a little too quickly

Raclette (already been blogged about)

Also a common winter dish in the region

Raclette set is used such as shown here ----------->

Special raclette cheese is not put on top of the grill as shown in the picture but usually comes in slices and is placed in the little trays shown and slotted under the grill. People are served potatoes (which are sometimes left on the grill to keep warm) and charcuterie (lots of nice hams) and sometimes grill meat on top of the grill and when their cheese on their little tray starts to bubble it gets poured wherever and whenever they want!

Number of times consumed by Dish = 3

At people's houses, 2 families from church and one teacher's family.

Verdict = not only scrumptious but a sociable dish too!

Fondue (of the cheese variety)

Common winter dish and now fairly commonly known in uk too

A blend of different varieties of cheese are usually packaged as "fondue" cheese because it's ideal for the job or something... quite often they use a combination of cheeses such as emmental and comté (which on their own are very yummy too) This is all melted in a special fondue pot, and each person is given a skewer. Usually bread, chopped into cubes, is skewered and dipped into the pot but other things such as vegetables and potatoes can be dipped in too. This is also usually served with a plate of charcuterie

Number of times consumed by Dish = 2

A restaurant and a birthday party

Verdict = Delicious when you're hungry though can get a bit sickly after a while. Very sociable though and super bien for parties!

Apologies to anyone who may be disinclined towards fromage

Nouvelle An

I love New Year! I love church and chippies and ceilidhs and kilts and random parties where I know almost no one and random parties where I know everyone and banter and funky music and dancing and staying up with people you love till the sun rises. But most of all I love it because it's new!

l love the fact that a new year is new because it is the best excuse for a fresh start. I'm always in need of fresh starts and frankly I could embark on them anytime, but there's something so official and formal about New Year that makes it easier.
The first definition of the word "new" that comes up in the Oxford dictionary is "not existing before". I always look at a new year like looking at a whiteboard... I like to pretend that it's wiped clean so I can cover with new scribblings that didn't exist before, but really, in truth, it's not. I can choose at this point (at any point really) to have some stuff wiped clean off it, whilst others stay, sometimes by choice, sometimes not. I love the future but the whiteboard isn't completely white because I will not, I cannot forget the past... the past that hurts, heals, strengthens, weakens, teaches, marks, scars... so full of memories... one of the reasons I love blogging is because I love memories and I love reminiscing. And it is for this same reason that I love new year... it gives me a chance to look back and think over and be thankful for all the things that have happened, "good" and "bad", and how I lived and review how I should be living this next year...
Or at least that's the way it should be... that kinda back-fired a little on me this year. Over the last wee while I went through a period of feeling bogged down by guilt and frustrated with myself for not taking opportunities I could have taken, for not putting 110% in when I should have. L'esprit d'escalier once again. But I realised that there is no need for that... God has set me free from sin and guilt and shame... rather than looking back and being frustrated about the times when I didn't give enough, I should be looking and moving forward and learning from past mistakes rather than dwelling on them.

I'm back in France now; Back with sun-lit alps, amazing supermarkets, le français, and keyboards with accents, and am feeling hopeful and expectant! I'm setting out into 2007 with eyes open, ready to live whatever comes along. You see I don't want to settle for mediocre Christianity... (Is it possible to be a "middle of the road, mediocre" Christian?) I want to live life to the full, I want to live life full of God!


I leave with some photographic highlights of my séjour en Ecosse

floating candles at dinner on Christmas Eve



silliness with the sister

ah joys of Scotland; friends, family, boy in kilt... I will miss you...
Scottish rain... I will miss you not

Bonne rentrée à tous

You know you've been in France too long when...

- you step off the plane and the humidity you never noticed before hits you

- you find the keys on british keyboards are annoyingly in the wrong places

- you find yourself saying "pardon" and "excusez-moi" to Scot randoms on the street

- you find yourself even more eager than usual to talk to randoms on the street because they are a fellow native english speaker

- little signs on trains with catchy phrases such as "keep clear" become interesting to read

- you finish your meal and start searching for the nearest baguette to mop your plate with

ah the joys of the reverse cultural shock! Mais quand-meme c'est super bien de rentrer à la mère patrie :) euuhmm... what language was I just speaking there?

Tagathon Shmagathon

Danke Ken for the honour... errrrr... ummm... 5 "interesting" facts about myself... never thought it would be sooo hard!

- When I was in primary school my best friends and I took our imaginations to dazzling heights in the playground. The trees in our playground were not only alive and had highly original ungirly names such as Starlight and Shady but Shady could transport you to other exciting worlds when you jumped up and down by the base of her trunk... I also owned one or two magic horses and we frequently fought a formidable foe known as TheBloomyGrassThief.

- I am ridiculously squeamish especially when it comes to wounds caused by blades and broken glass... e.g nearly fainted whilst watching a very un-gory part of Edward Scissorhands earlier this year (when Edward strokes his creator's cheek) Lay on the bed and gulped down water whilst my Glasgow flatmates (rightly so) laughed at me

- And on a tangent from squeamishness I had chronic nosebleed problems from ages 3 to about 9. When I remember spending an hour or two most nights over the bathroom sink at the age of 4 with parents holding back my hair whilst I literally bled into the sink... loooooovely

- I finished a fantasy/sci-fi/teenageish novel when I was 14... (started it when I was 12) I say finished as I have actually made many attempts at such a work and never finish them. It comprises of a glorious 96 A4-sized pages in size 12 font and though I have tried rewriting it several times since then I just can't find an antidote to the romanticised metaphor-ridden idealistic drivel with that makes up the most part of it... even got halfway through a sequel... tant pis

- Oh and I reeeeally like marmite on toast!

humtiddlyumtum I feel I have too much choice for tagging so I pass the tag onto people who I hope will have fun with their responses - Frassle, Mac-ers, Trevor, Diana and Breakey the blogomniscient... will you rise to the challenge?!

blogged here today...

hmmmmm... snow-covered mountains at christmas time... :)

driven to blogging by bucket chucking in grenoble (glasgow style)

2weeks2weeks2weeks till I'm home!!!

Not that I'm not enjoying life here in Grenoble! This week has flown by what with 2 orchestra concerts avec this lovely outfit, what felt like a million rehearsals, spongebob square pants watchings, a fair bit of a tea, a bit too much chocolate, eating roasted chestnuts over a bin at le marché de noel, a wine tasting (at school of all places), advent calenders arriving by airmail, what must be worldrecordworthy long phone conversations to Ecosse, randomly playing for the 2006 version of this with lots of kiddy violinists, lots of very lovely classes, only a couple of slightly less lovely ones, beeeeeyoooootiful christmas lights... realising this again and again

smiley shiny smiley :)

Recherchez

I love reading my French Bible from time to time because occasionally I find phrases that simply translate better in french! Here's an example that I discovered just yesterday that I want to share with the internet.

Psalm 105:4 - in english (NIV)-
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

- en français (new Louis Segond version) -
Cherchez le Seigneur et sa force, recherchez-le constamment.

I like the french better... because the verb "rechercher" - neatly sums up in one word, in a way that doesn't quite translate grammatically into english, that we're being asked to search after having already found Him, i.e re-searching/re-seeking. And it says to keep it up constamment; constantly.

I often forget to do that. After finding God in some awesome way, my natural tendancy is to get complacent... to subconsciously be like, ok so I'm fine now and don't really need God right now cos the fact that He sorted me out in that situation should keep me going for a while.
But right here in this verse, it tells me to do the opposite. To keep searching for God after I've found Him. Desiring more, wanting to know more... I want that to be the case and it can be sometimes, but I find it's a constant battle... especially for someone as naturally lazy as myself... I'm just so grateful that I have help! :)

P.S 1st December => Christmas is coming => AdventBlog has started

Communal bilingual dinner = Education to the max

Last night's Dinner Count

Anglophones: 4
Francophones: 5

Lessons on Pronunciation en français for Anglophones

The difference between dessert and desert is you pronounce the 's' in dessert like the 's' in snake and the 's' in desert like a 'z'


il y a plus de (they are more...) - prounounce the 's' at the end of plus
il n'y a plus de (they are no more...) - the 's' is silent

bouilloire (a kettle) is not pronounced like bruillard (fog)

Reims en France is pronounced Reins

New Phrases en français

ringard - closest french equivelant to word cheesy
anticonstituionellement - longest french word (I can say it!)
To say 'that's a shame' you can say quelle dommage or c'est ballot but not c'est dommage. The latter n'existe pas en français...

The Francophones learnt that

You cannot use Angletterre to describe all english speaking countries or even all British countries

Meaning of the words 'redneck', 'cheesy'

antidisestablishmentarianism - didn't teach them the meaning of that

The difference in pronunciation between 'angry' and 'hungry' - those 'h's are hard to say!
The difference in pronuncation between the 'i' vowels e.g in 'fit' as opposed to 'feet' (I'm not going to publish what words were actually being talked about there)

And it's all written on the unpainted wall as pictured above so no chance of forgetting!

Communal educational bilingual dinner = Badinage!!!

baaaah ouuuuuais...

mmm... what a week

Soroco winds, ridiculously warm sunshine for November, bucketting rain, snow on mountains, then all melted again...

3 "Scottish" visitors, 10 visits to Grenoble train station (3 to retrieve a lost bag, 1 to miss a bus), several meals out, several meals in, 2 trips up the Bastille, 2 sunsets watched, much tea drunk, 1 chocolate tasting attended, 1 night of silly dancing to silly hours had, 1 trip to the cinema made, much franglais spoken, several new friends made, one random lunch with one lovely random muslim lady, random tram trips taken...

I am now losing my voice and am finding it difficult to speak english let alone french. Try saying "Royaume uni" (united kingdom) in the post office when you have a sore throat! The woman behind the desk might think you're saying Italie!

Some photo highlights

Crisp November leaves crunchcrunchcrunchbeeeeautiful mountains all covered in snow



and yes this was all made of chocolate!!!


we didn't eat it all!! honest! :P

se mettre en grève

Yes folks... today I experienced my first full-on infamous french strike!
Today... all just before 10am this morning all trams and buses stopped...
of course today was also the day that I had to travel to Meylan, a small town (also mini-utopia), 2 buses away from where I lived to teach at a school for 4 hours...
and of course I had already taken one bus and so was in the centre of town and even further away from Meylan when they decided to go on strike... and so I waited and chatted to grumbling little old ladies in french for a bit... and then walked... and was an hour and a half late for classes! Tant pis... All part o the cultural experience eh?!

apprécier

It's funny... I was just thinking... if I were elsewhere... if I was back in Glasgow I'd be getting stressed right now or at least feeling veryveryworked like everyone back home, living it up in the library with essays galore no doubt... and yet here I am in this beautiful city where life is quiet, people go to bed at reasonable hours most of the time, where it hardly ever rains and I have this ridiculous amount of spare time on my hands. Well not that ridiculous anymore, but au moins more than I'm used to.
I wonder whether I'd rather be back in Glasgow sometimes, and be stressed and manically busy, or here with lots and lots of time and relaxation which sometimes I wonder if I need...
All I know is, whether or not I am always contented with the situation I'm in, I should always be grateful for it, for what I have and what's now and the situation that God has put me in... because he knows best and I know he's teaching me a lot by taking me out of my usual environment and placing me somewhere tout à fait different for a while.
Therefore... Rachetez le temps car les jours sont mauvais

Un mot - Enjoy :)

je suis l'assistante d'anglais

I can't believe I've been at this teaching melarky for over a month now and still hadn't blogged about it!

Ah... the joys... today I had to tell a class off for the first time
I said to them with a quiet disapproving teacher voice- "Il y avait trop de bruit aujourd-hui. Cette classe est pour vous de pratiquer parler et ecouter en anglais, mais si vous n'ecoutez pas, il n'y pas de point d'etre ici!" - translation -
"There was far too much noise today. This class is for you to practise speaking and listening in english but if you don't listen there's no point in you being here!"
They apologised so I think it will be ok. Bear in mind this was the first time I've ever had to properly tell anyone off.

See so far teaching has been generally very good! Very different from how I expected it... not at all nerve-wracking despite the fact that I frequently have to adlib... somehow french organisation means that despite all the preparation I may have done, every week I get at least a couple of groups of classes of age groups I haven't been expecting, so often have to make up lessons on the spot... but somehow managed to do ok so far though preparation is most definitely the way forward!

I teach kids ranging from the ages of about 12 to older than me. Have to use french with the 12-15 year olds cos the only english they understand is "I have blue eyes, I have brown hair etc." but some of my older classes speak very good english which is pretty cool, I just have to speak slowly and clearly with them!

And for some reason the fact that I am young has so far been a big advantage! There is always a collective exclaim of disbelief or surprise ("aaaah mais c'est jeune!!!") if anyone asks me how old I am, it's quite amusing! And after one class one guy who must have been about my age came up to me and said "Are you really only 20, I thought you must be like 22 or something!!" Hahahaha I think that was meant as a compliment... I think...

And aaaah the accents! My friends in France will tell you that I have developed quite a passion and a liking for imitating the french accent when speaking english... I will demonstrate with some phonetic spelling - demonstration of todays lesson with the 13 year olds

"Wot aaaav yooou got aateuuh treee o clockeuh?"
"I aaav got euuuh... doctors appooointeuhmnt"

sniff... isn't it just beautiful!

I'm tired... I think all this teaching has gone to my head...

à la prochaine

Freiburg, ja!

Yes I know I'm supposed to be in France for the year... but what with the border being so close I decided to spend a few days in Germanland to visit these two wondericous people!





Of course I got to see the wonders of Germany too... bright neon signs, ridiculously tall trees and graffiti everywhere! Icecream, erasmus students and bicycles are plentiful!

I feel like I've just spent the last few days living the life of an erasmus student in Freiburg, which I basically did! Highlights included:
- Wonderfully large communal meals
- the Stusie bar (the student union) - is so scarily similar to the qm it's unreal! I felt very very at home!
- Being able to chat to a German girl in what was our only common language - french!
- Cable car trips into the mountains never go amiss
- Good food
- A judith-cooked German breakfast fry-up... mmmmm...
- Church in German AND English! (complete novelty!)

It was just sooo nice to be somewhere so completely different from France for a few days and break up the term, since I won't be going home till Christmas. And to live the student life again, Grenoble life is so quiet in comparison! Plus Freiburg is beautiful! If you wanna check out photos check out Jamie's blog, he's got a mixture of mine, his and other folks photos from the weekend.
It was however very satisfying to return last night and understand and be able to chat to folk at the station and in shops again! I discovered I really dislike being able to hold my own in a country communication wise. I hope to visit again... so the what has become quite a long list of languages to learn, Deutsch now has a prominent spot!