Baguette

Went out to work this morning when the dew was still settled on the branches. Even earlier morning tomorrow eek! Do not understand why French schools have to start at 8.15am.

Today I bought my first baguette from a boulangerie! Now I know I've been here over a week, but I have not actually had much time to make myself lunch...and anyway, buying one from a supermarket doesn't count. Realised just how hard it is to adjust sometimes when I see myself having to check both ways of one side of the road because I can't remember which side cars come from. Apparently this is quite common with ex-pats though, causing some quite serious road accidents at times! Will just have to keep wasting spending time looking both ways...

Had most of my day today with Romain, who teaches English geography and history in English to his French class. Topic of the day - Categories of Economic Activity, in particular the Industrial Revolution in Britain. For someone doing an English and French degree not particularly thrilling! As someone who hasn't done History or Geography since the age of about 13, this is all completely new to me...I'm not sure how much I can really add to these classes bar pronunciation! Hearing a "proper" Frenchman trying to pronounce 'wool' or 'rural exodus' is something that has to be experienced! Troisième are a lot more chatty than the younger sixième, but lovely nevertheless...it is hard to believe that I am six years older than them, I feel like one of the class!! The two hour lesson was livened up (the topic was boring, not the teacher I hasten to add!) by a girl having a rather loud panic attack outside the classroom. Apparently she has them all the time and some other teachers were on hand to make sure she was alright!
Words I have learned:
- Raw materials - matières premières
- Limestone - calcaire
- Efficient - efficace
- Collapsed - s'effondre, s'écroule
- Sit down - on s'assoit
- Pattern - motif
- Steam powered - à vapeur
- Pencil case - trousse

My final lesson of the day was with a different troisieme class, these being those French students who had a very good knowledge of English, but not bilingual. These were studying different languages and creating posters on what they had learned - all in English of course. My job was to correct them and help the students understand why it was wrong. The most common mistake was writing "talked" instead of "spoken" as there is only one word the French would use in this situation (parler). Seems silly that we have the two to be honest. Anyway, another set of great children - definitely more well behaved than I thought they would be.

Managed to cook chicken thighs without having an oven, win.