Joyeuse Pâques!!

For anyone who is not Catholic, this post probably won't make much sense but anyway, after realising that there was no way I would be home for Easter this year, I thought I'd got to the Easter Vigil service here in Aulnoye. Since the Catholic Church is fundamentally the same throughout the world, I borrowed a Mass book from my church at home, so I would at least have some idea of the readings!

I have discovered that the churches here are grouped into Parishes, now were have Parishes at home, but it normally only includes one church, (maybe 2-3 in very rural areas) but here a Parish is made up of 4-5 churches, spread out over quite a large area, in the case of Aulnoye, over the surrounding towns/villages too. I found the church in Aulnoye not long after I got here, right in the town centre about 15mins walk away. Now if this was England, all the Masses would be held at that church, and there would be no problem. But here, it turns out that only the 18h00 Saturday evening Mass is held at St Martin here in Aulnoye, and the other Masses are held at other churches in the surrounding towns, which unfortunately are not easy to get to without a car.

And that was my problem with the Easter Vigil service, I had thought that since it takes place on Saturday night, that it might have been in Aulnoye, but no, it would be taking place in St Michael's Berlimont, the next town north of here, which was impossible to get to without a car. Undeterred I decided to go to the Palm Sunday Mass at the church in Aulnoye, and see whether maybe I could find someone who was going to the Easter Vigil service who would give me a lift. Luckily for me at the end of the service the Priest noticed that he didn't recognised me and so came over to find out who I was. As I explained that I was from England, he called over a couple who (apparently) the man had lived in England at some point in his life!! As soon as I explained (in french!!) my predicament for the following week, he said not to worry, he and his wife would give me a lift!! So that was great problem solved!!

So tonight I waited for them at 8pm and they came and picked me up and took me to the church in Berlimont. It's a beautiful church, quite old, but has also been refurbished recently so it looks really nice inside. All the people running round trying to get things ready defiantly reminded me of my Church at home! What surprised me thought was that there were lots of children there, not really young ones, but probably around 9-14 years, they were all sitting together at the front and they had sticks which they had decorated and lanterns which they had made out of Tin cans! We couldn't start with the fire outside like normal cos it was snowing (yes really snowing!!) so they just had a small one at the back of the Church and they lit the Easter Candle, then the children processed down the aisle with their sticks and lanterns and they lit everyone's candle as they went. The lights were all turned out so it was just lit with candles and it was really beautiful (this is my favourite part of the service anyway!)

It was a bit confusing, I tried to follow it in my English Mass book, but sometimes the words didn't really match, and so it was hard to find what they were doing. There are 7 readings in the Mass book, and most of the services I have been to have done at least 5, but here they only did 2, so that was a bit strange cos I was expecting them to do more!! It was also slightly different after the Renewal of Baptismal Promises, because in my church at home the priest goes through the church sprinkling people with the Holy Water, but here people went up to the font themselves and blessed themselves, it was nice, but it did take quite a long time, and defiantly wouldn't work with the number of people in my church at home!!

On the whole I managed to understand it, though it was strange cos even if I didn't understand every word, I still knew what they were saying and doing! It was really nice to see what other churches do because even though it was mostly the same service, there were little things that were different.

One thing that I found quite symbolic was that the name of the church was St Michael's, which is the same as my church at home! How weird is that!!

The couple that gave me a lift were really nice, and have even offered to take me out one weekend, Unfortunately I don't have that many weekends left here now, but hopefully I'll get a chance to meet up with them again before I go home.

Oh by the way the title 'Joyeuse Pâques' means 'Happy Easter' if you couldn't guess! It was quite funny cos after the service the priest came up to wish me happy Easter, and obviously wanted to say it in English (I must admit I don't quite understand why almost every French person I have met has tried speaking to me in English once they find out I'm English...I can speak french you know..you don't have to speak to me in English!!) but anyway, he didn't know what it was, so started asking all the other people round me, until I said, 'Oh Joyeuse Pâques en Anglais? C'est 'Happy Easter.' He looked a bit surprised that I had understood him (well...yeah..(see above!!)) and then said 'ah bon, 'Appy Easter'!! Ah well it was nice of him to try, though really I would have understood if he said it in French!!!

So Joyeuse Pâques everyone...try not to eat tooo much chocolate!!!

SOOOOO Bored!!!!

Well it's now Sunday, The trains are still on strike, so I haven't be able to go anywhere. I was invited to go out to dinner with the other assistants in Valenciennes last night, unfortunately I couldn't get there, and so was stuck here instead.

OK, I'll warn you now, this is going to be a bit of a moany post. I'm just sooo bored, I actually don't know what I doing here. This isn't exactly the great 'Adventure' I imagined it would be, it just almost like I'm stuck here, waiting until May when I can go home again. I read the other assistants blogs, and they've all be having a great time, travelling, seeing new places etc. I have been to three new places in France since I've been here, Lille, Valenciennes and Aulnoye. That's it, I haven't done any travelling, and visited lots of new and exciting places or anything.

Even in the schools I really have no idea what I am doing there. Take this week for example, Normally I prefer working in Ecole Stievenart, but when I arrived on Monday afternoon, the teacher explained, that as the children were making something for the Christmas market in a few weeks, They wouldn't be doing as much English. Great!!! This meant that I spent the whole of Monday afternoon sitting at the back of the class doing nothing. I'm not even too sure what they were making, so I couldn't help or anything. The only thing that stopped me going completely bored, was that I could listen to the French, and watch the children. I the had Tuesday and Wednesday off, and I was stuck here.

I went into school on Thursday, early, armed with my books, and my play, with the intention of sitting down and talking to the teacher about what I could do. Well firstly the teacher wasn't there, she came in about 10 minutes later, with her daughter, who goes to the nursery school, so she was sorting her out, I managed to quickly show her the books, but she said she thought 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' might be too difficult for the children to understand. Then she went to take her daughter to the Nursery. I hadn't had a chance to show her the play, and at that moment I didn't really see the point. When she came back, I spoke to her again about the Bear Hunt story explaining that I didn't really think it would be too difficult, cos it's mostly repeating. She had another look, and agreed that maybe it would be OK. I then showed her the 'Jesus' Christmas Party' Story, I wasn't sure if she'd agree with it, but she had a look, and took a copy of it. I'm not sure if we can do it as a play, but maybe I can get some of the children to act it out whilst I read it. Mum has sent me the actual book, so I can use that too. I didn't really get much of a chance to talk to her though, because then it was the end of lunch break and the children were coming back. So I resumed my position at the back of the class just watching.

I did however go into one English lesson, but I didn't do anything. At one point the teacher was explaining about Bonfire Night, and I had the chance to jump up and show the children my pictures quickly. But that was it. After I sat down and went back to doing nothing. At the end of the day the teacher explained, that they wouldn't be doing any English on Friday, because the class were going to the library. On Friday morning, I wasn't feeling very well, in fact I was sick a few times. I really didn't feel up to going into the school, and after I remembered that they weren't actually going to be doing any English anyway, I really didn't see the point. I sent an e-mail to the school, saying I was sorry, but I was sick and wouldn't be coming in, and went back to bed!!

On Saturday, I was feeling slightly better, but I was also feeling a bit guilty for not going in the day before, so I made sure I got up and was in school by 8:30am! In all honesty there was actually no point to me being there at all. I spent the 1st 2 hours sitting at the back of the class, doing absolutely nothing, and then at 10:40 the teacher said we were going to go into another class to do an English lesson. I walked into the class, said 'Good Morning' to the children, and sat down. Half an hour later, I stood up, said 'Goodbye' and walked out again.

The worst thing is, I really don't know how to change this, I don't know what else I can say or do, I don't see how I can be of any use, when I don't know what is going on. I don't have anytime to actually talk to the teachers about it, I might possibly see the teachers for about 10-15 mins before the afternoon lessons start, but that it, and most of the time, they are using that time to planned lessons themselves. They don't really need me to come hassling them.

I'm in Ecole Joilot Currie this week. I have a few ideas about Christmas, which I want to talk the teachers about, but I still have no idea what else they are doing. So I guess I'm going to spend more time sitting at the back of the classroom, doing nothing....oh joy!!!

The only bright spark on the horizon is that Mum and her friend, are coming out to visit next weekend. They are coming in the car, so they can bring over some Christmas things for me to show the children. On Saturday we are going to go to the Christmas Market in Lille. I can't wait, not least because it means I will finally be getting out of the town!! On Sunday, we can go anywhere I want, before they drive home again...I haven't actually got any ideas....but anywhere outside of this town will be great!!!

OK I just re-read this post, and it sounds as if I am really unhappy here. That's not totally true, I am not unhappy....I'm just not that happy!!!

OK positive thinking, I'm sure it will get better soon!!!

More later!!

Rebecca

Remembrance Day Photos

Top: The Service at the War Memorial.

Middle: British War Graves in Aulnoye Cemetery.

Bottom: The Unknown Soldier (Can you spot my poppy?)

Remembrance Sunday in Aulnoye

I really wanted to post this dated the 11 November, but I didn't realise the time, so unfortunately it's come under the 12th November. (therefore as it's just after midnight, when I say today, I mean the 11th, not the 12th!)

I went to the Remembrance service in Aulnoye today. I wasn't even sure if they would even have one, I'd tried to find out, but hadn't managed to find anything, so my plan was just to walk to the war memorial around 10:45 to see if anything was going on. In the end I got woken at 10:20 by the band matching past my window!!! I moved sooo fast, jumped up, got dressed, and was out the door in about 5 mins!! Luckily the parade had stopped outside the Station so I was able to catch up with it there. It was a bit different to the parade in Ashford, Much much smaller, there weren't any guides or scouts! Instead there was the band, followed by the firefighters, and the junior firefighting corps, the some representatives from the nearby steel factory, the station and old soldiers carrying flags (only about 6 though) and then some of the children from Joilot Currie, then the rest of the town followed behind. We walked to the War Memorial for the service there. I couldn't really understand what was being said, the guy speaking was speaking quite fast, but I got the general idea. The only had 1 minutes silence at 11am though, either that or it was a very very quick two minutes!! There was no Last Post or Reveille, although they did lower the flags, in fact the only way I realise it was over, when they raised them again!! Then the children sang the French National anthem, unfortunately it was raining, and they were quite quiet so I couldn't really hear them, which was a shame.

Then everyone started leaving the memorial, I thought it was the end, but then the band started playing again, I wasn't to sure if it was like in Ashford where the band plays again afterwards, and we just parade back to the start, but everyone was following them, so I followed.

We walked a little bit further up the road to the town cemetery, I walk this way to Ecole Joilot Currie, but what I hadn't noticed before was that at the back of the cemetery there were some British war graves. As we approached I saw the Union Flag flying from the flagpole (I'm almost positive it wasn't there when I walked past on Thurs, or else I was really stupid not to notice it!!) The cemetery is quite small so we had to stand outside in the road, whilst the children went in and put flowers on each of the graves. The band then played 'God Save the Queen' I must admit because I wasn't expecting it, it took me a couple of seconds to work out why I recognised it!! Afterwards they played the French Anthem again and then we continued walking round to the 'Hotel de Ville' (Town Hall) where they ended the service. In total, (bearing in mind I missed the beginning) It was about an hour long, so it was longer than in Ashford, but it didn't really seem that long cos we moved around. After people were going into the Town Hall, so I went in, they had a kinda reception thing, with drinks and nibbles, but as I hadn't had breakfast I turned down the glass of wine! The mayor, (or someone from the town council anyway!) then made a speech to say thank you to everyone which seemed to go on for ages! I left about 11:45 initially I intended to go back to the flat to see if I could watch/listen to the service in London online, but as I walked past the cemetery I decided to have a look.

There were 44 graves, 43 identified and 1 unknown soldier. What was quite surprising was that they were all from 1918, and in fact 21 were killed on the 6-8th November 1918. Almost spookily 8 of the 21 were from the Middlesex Regiment, which considering I live in Ashford, Middlesex, makes it one of the Regiments that would have been based closest to my home. It was so bizarre to be standing in a cemetery, in a small town, in the middle of France, and see Middlesex written on a gravestone. I mean I know WWI was fought in this area, but I was just thinking of all the main battlefields like the Somme, Ypres, Flanders, you know the ones we learnt about in school. I never imagined finding graves in a tiny town such as Aulnoye.

As I was standing there I heard the clock tower strike 12, (i.e 11am in England) so I had my own little 2 minutes silence, thinking about these men that had come through the town 89 years ago and those who would never return home. I was still wearing my poppy and so just before I left I took it off and placed it at the foot of the grave of the Unknown Soldier. (I got it when I was at home, they don't have poppies in France) It just felt like the right thing to do, my little way of saying Thank you, and Remembering the men who died here.

I was thinking about the men who died, particularly those who had died in the final days of the war, and I really wanted to know why they had died, what they were doing in Aulnoye. So when I got back to the flat I looked it up online. I managed to find a really detailed website about the 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment (which was the one the 8 soldiers belonged to) which said that the 6-8th Nov 1918 was the Battle of the Sambre. (The Sambre is the river just to the north of Aulnoye separating it from the town of Berlimont) The Germans had held Aulnoye since 1914, making particular use of the railway line to bring supplies in to the front line, and so on the 6th Nov 1918 there were still a number of German troops stationed here. The British troops had to get across the river from Berlimont, and although they tried at night, they were met with Machine-gun fire, and several soldiers were killed. They eventually made it into Aulnoye, and assembled in front of the station. It's so weird to think that 89 years ago there were British troops fighting right here where I am now! The next day the Battalion advanced on the road towards Avesnes but were met with shell fire and another 4 soldiers were killed, one of whom Lieut. W.L Hudspith had fought since 1914. The rest of the Battalion reached their objective, and then were relieved at 4am on the 8th Nov, when they came back to Aulnoye before marching on to Sassegnies, a tiny village just south of here, where they stayed until receiving news of the Armistice.

Sorry I know that was a bit of a history lesson, but I found it really interesting, I thought it was especially sad that the soldiers died right at the very end of the war, in fact during the very last advance that the Battalion made toward the Germans. 24 hours later and it was all over for them. The fact that some had fought throughout the whole war, only to die right at the end, is really sad.

It's strange, every year I take part in Remembrance day parade, and I can see the list of names inscribed on the War Memorial, but that's all it is...a list of names. To actually take a name from a grave and find out how old they were, where they lived, where they fought, and where they died, makes it more real. It's not just a name anymore, but an actual person who walked the same streets I do, and died in this town fighting for Britain.

Anyway, sorry for wittering on, this is rather a long post, and it is now 2:45am so I'd better get to sleep or else I'll be late for work tomorrow (even if I start at 1:30!) I'll update again soon with how it's going in the schools and stuff.

I do also have some photos from today, but for some reason blogger won't let me post them, so I'll add them later.

Rebecca

Have Accommodation!!!

Yeay I have somewhere to live!!!

I got an e-mail yesterday from my responsable saying that she had spoken to a letting agency and could I transfer some money to a french bank account. I was like, hang on a minute why, I'm not just gonna hand over money for no reason. So I emailed her back asking what it was for, and she replied that she had found me a Studio Apartment, and so I needed to pay 2 months rent as a security deposit, 520EUR (I just realised there is no Euro sign on my keyboard!!) Plus the agency fees, for them finding it, which is 260EUR, It's a bit annoying that I have to pay the agency fees, (I'm hoping if I ask nicely I might be able to get my dad to pay that!!) but at least I have somewhere to live, and the rent seems to be only 260EUR (£179) a month which is waaaaaaaaaaay less then the £310 I was paying all last year!!

Unfortunately I have no idea where abouts in the town it is, or what it is like, I presume it will be furnished, and at least have a bed, wardrobe, drawers, chairs, table, bathroom and kitchen, (with fridge, stove, sink, oven, possibly microwave, kettle, toaster, washing machine) and preferably it'll have some cooking utensils and cookware and plates, cutlery and bed linen and stuff, or else I'll have to spend a lot of money buying it all which I don't really want to do.

It would also be brilliant if it already had water and electricity and a phone line so I can set up the Internet, but I'll guess I just have to wait and see, (fingers crossed!)

Well all I really have to do now is spend the next week panicking.....um sorry I meant packing of course!!!

Arrête has arrived!!

Finally I got my arrête! I now know exactly which schools I will be working in! My time will be split between 'Ecole Stievenart' and 'Ecole Joliot Curie', The blog on the left is from Joilot Curie about when the 9 year olds went to the beach, it doesn't matter if you can't read the french, the pictures are good, I can't believe that in 8 weeks time, I will be teaching some of those kids!! AAAH!

I got some more infomation from the British Council today together with a book about being a language assistant, they also included contact details for the previous assistants, which as I said in my last post, the town I'm in has never had any previous assistants, so thats not too helpful for me, but there was someone who was in a town near me, so I might e-mail them and see if they have any tips.

In the meentime, I'm trying to get together 'English things' to take with me, I went to Windsor on Sunday, and got a few postcards and a model London bus and taxi, I want to get a map of the UK and an 'English' Bear as well, and then need to take photos of Ashford, and my house and family and stuff.

Oh and by the way, The police phoned to say that they couldn't find my suitcase, it hadn't been handed in anywhere, and the was no CCTV on the train so they don't know who took it. It is now extreamly unlikely that i'll ever get it back, which is a shame. I now need to start replacing all the stuff that was in there, which is something I hadn't exactly buggeted for, and is very annoying.

Anyway that's about it from me now!

Oh if you want to see the photos of the town it's at http://aulnoye.free.fr/sommaire.htm

Introduction to the middle of nowhere

Hello

Well this is my 1st post in my new blog, I had the idea of doing a blog while I'm in France, it means I can keep in touch with everyone easily, and you can all find out what I'm doing!

Well I'm obviously not in France yet, but I thought I'd start at the beginning, with the build up to going to France, (How often I write here when I'm actually in France will be another matter, but I hope I can update it regularly!)

Just in case anyone doesn't know why on earth I'm going to spend 7 months of my life in France, I'd better explain: As part of my French degree at Uni, I have to spend a year in France, I had the option of either going to a French university or being a Language Assistant in a french school. As soon as I was told the options, I knew that being an assistant was exactly what I wanted to do. I sent my application off in December, and then began the long long wait to find out where I was going. In April I found out that I would definitely be going to 1-2 primary schools in the 'Acadamie' of Lille, but that wasn't very helpful as the area is quite big and I still had to wait to find out exactly where I would be going.

Then yesterday I got an e-mail from someone in France saying that I had been posted to 2 primary schools in the town of 'Aulnoye' (pronounced All-nwah)

I was really excited and immediately looked on multimap to find out where it was, it was then I found that it appeared to be in the middle of a big white space! After searching online I could only find a few sites about the town, (which has a population of 9,000) and appears to have practically nothing there apart from a train station!
(actually tell a lie, It does seem to have a swimming pool somewhere near by!) I think in a few hours I had exhausted all the sites possible and I still wasn't any the wiser about what I could actually do there!!

The only bright spot is that after posting on a forum for assistants I was told that it is only about 1 hour away by train from Lille and Paris, and 1/2 hour away from Valenciennes which is the nearest big town, and quite a few assistants are posted there, (in fact I know of 3 from the facebook group) which is good and hopefully means I shouldn't be too lonely!

I sent an e-mail back to the women saying that I accept the post, and asking about accommodation, haven't heard anything back yet, hopefully will soon, I must say they were leaving it a bit late, The schools break up for the summer today!! And apparently it's really hard to get in contact with the teachers during the summer, and they don't go back until 4th Sept!! All I want to know is whether I have somewhere to live or whether I need to find somewhere myself!!

Anyway, I might try posting some maps so you can see where abouts I'm gonna be! Right now I guess I'm feeling a little disappointed, I was so looking forward to finding out where I'd be and I guess kinda hopping for a bigger town or at least a bit closer to Lille, but at least I know now, and I'll just have to make the best of the situation.

Will post more soon, I'm going up to Lancaster next week to learn how to actually teach the 'wonderful' little children, so hopefully I'll get some idea of what I'm actually meant to do, and maybe find some more people who will be living near me!

Becca