The Alscacian autumn,a new arrival and a second English rapprochement

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After weeks of beautiful French sunshine the weather has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. On Friday I witnessed my second day of Alsacian rain which is worse than Welsh rain because at least when it rains in Wales it brings some warmth. But here it rains and the temperature dramatically drops - yesterday it was 10 C!! On Monday we were enjoying temperatures of 27 C but I've been told it does that here - goes from one extreme to the other. Great. I escape from one wet and cold country only to come to another??

As for my new English assistant role, I was meant to be starting on Tuesday so turned up at the school bright and early at 8:30, only to be told by the teacher that the timetable has changed and that she wouldn't be needing me that morning but if I wanted to I could introduce myself to the Seconde. What happened to the amazing power of email? (I gave her my address my last week). But seeing as I had turned up at the school I thought I might as well stay and do something useful - the teacher told me that the Seconde are the oldest students so I was hopeful that they're English would be pretty good. (I tried to figure out what year the Seconde would be in Britain but soon gave up - the French educational system is way too confusing - they don't seem to like our simple, logical system of ascending order).

When I got to the class I was confronted with a small (thankfully) group of four spotty and rather miserable looking teenagers who looked about sixteen (they were in fact fourteen and fifteen). I stood at the front and started the whole schmozzle about how old I am, where I'm from, how many brothers and sisters I have...blah,blah....but was soon interrupted by the teacher who told me that I was speaking too fast...I thought the blank faces in front of me had been because of boredom rather than a lack of understanding. I think it must have been a mixture of both because even when I started talking slower they still looked like they might drop dead any minute. When I'd finished the teacher asked them if they had any questions, that's if they could pick out anything interesting from what I'd just told them. They obviously couldn't because they all remained silent. Then the teacher changed tactics and asked me if I had anything to ask them. No, not really but of course I stayed true to the stereotype of polite English person and feigned interest by asking them what was there to do on the weekend. Silence. The teacher did her best to get them to speak but only managed to probe a few muttered 'nothing's out of them. It's encouraging to see that the joys of adolescence are universal. For the rest of the lesson I sat in the corner 'observing' them as they did a writing exercise but in actual fact I was more interested in the clock on the wall than the students scribbling away. I did feel a bit sorry for them when I saw the text they had to read - a newspaper article about modern camping - what is it about exam boards picking out the most boring subject to test students on?

That afternoon I was left to look after Gabriel and Raphael whilst Laetita went to the infamous Banc Vestimentaire and Cedric went to pick up the kids from school. I was feeling rather brave and decided to try and bake a cake using a recipe that Laetita had given me. Gabriel was still having his nap so I thought it would be easy with only one child to manage. My cake-making attempts were going fairly well (despite some difficulty with trying to separate the egg white) until Raphael decided to try and help me and then I couldn't find the baking powder. After a bit of panic and telling myself what a rubbish mum I'm going to be if I can't even stay cool during a cake-making crisis I managed to find the baking powder and prevent Raphael from destroying everything. When Cedric got home I called on his knowledge to help me figure out the right oven setting but as with most men he knows little about the kitchen so it wasn't until Laetitia got home that we managed to successfully bake the cake. And I must say, it actually tasted pretty good and everyone else said so too.

On Thursday after a relaxing morning in my room I came out to find we had a new family member - a stray ginger kitten which Laetita had named Toffee. The children are all head over heels in love with him - I think he's lovely too but ever since their other cat Schlumu (don't ask - it's a Hebrew name) peed on my clean trousers, I haven't been overly fond of cats. Apparently we're not going to keep Toffee because we already have two cats to feed and look after but everyone loves him so much I can't see them giving him up easily.

My second English rapprochement happened on Saturday - the girls I'd met last Sunday had met some other English assistants at a big training day they'd had in Strasbourg and had arranged to meet up with them in Mulhouse. I had been a bit reluctant to go because I wasn't sure what to expect and I felt a bit left out when we met last Sunday because they all had the same university and work experiences to talk about and because I didn't say much I think they thought I was shy and wasn't enjoying myself - it's so frustrating when people assume I'm shy because I know I'm not.

At 9am on Saturday we caught the bus from Guebwiller to the commercial city of Mulhouse (nicknamed by some, the French Manchester and it was easy to see why). We were meant to be meeting the others at the cathedral but had some difficulty trying to locate it and we soon ended up in a dodgy-looking residential area, but at least we weren't alone. (When I'm with the English girls I feel like a bit of a midget because they're all quite tall.) We did at last manage to find the cathedral and were met by a guy called Michael and a girl called Rebekah. It felt strange to be the only one that isn't at university and I feel a bit inferior when I tell them how old I am and that I'm not a part of the English Assistantship organization (like they are).

But as we got talking Rebekah told me that she's a Christian - I had already mentioned that I'm teaching at a private Christian school. I couldn't believe it when she told me! I don't think she could believe it either when I told her that I'm a Christian - apparently I'm the first one she's met over here. She seems really nice and told me that she's going to start going to a church just over the border in Germany. I suggested that we could meet up once every so often to chat and pray together.

We went to a small cafe to wait for an American couple that were meant to be joining us. When they arrived I got talking to the girl - her name is Hallie and she's 22 (just graduated from uni) - she seems nice and when I told her that this was my gap year, she said she wished she'd done the same so that when she'd gone to uni she'd have had more 'life experience' - that was encouraging to hear. When our coffee came I couldn't believe how small the cups were - considering the French love coffee why don't they at least use mugs like us?! And it cost us 2,80 euros - we've all come to the conclusion that everything in France is expensive - maybe I'll have to reconsider living here in the future.

After our measly portions of coffee we strolled over (in the rain) to the market - Mulhouse accomodates a lot of people from Arabic countries and it felt a bit intimidating sometimes. And plus the rain made everywhere seem very miserable and grey - just like Wales really.

For lunch we got something from a bakery and took it over to Rebekah's apartment and ate it in her small and sterile shared kitchen. When I saw how she has to live and when I heard the stories from some of the others it makes me really appreciate living with a family in a town like Guebwiller - I'm safe, I'm with people that I know, I don't have to pay rent and my needs are provided for and plus I'm part of a Christian community. God has certainly chosen well for me.

After lunch it was time to go home - I'd really enjoyed myself and it's always great to meet other English people when you're in a foreign country. Despite my reluctance to go I'm glad I went and I think next week we are going to meet up again and go to Colmar - I just hope the weather is nicer!

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