Vendredi le 26 septembre

Last day at my intensive course- Wahoo! Didn’t realise how tough it was to sit 5 hours every day concentrating so hard while everything is in a foreign language.
I spent part of the day at the secretary’s office trying to find out what I can continue with. The semi intensive 3 hours a day started on the 15th and isn’t another one till end of January, which I think is a bit late.
The other option they tried to get for me is oral and writing but it is above my level and it too started on the 15th and I have missed quite a bit. So nothing really sticking out apart from another intensive, however I don’t want to do one this month cause I feel settling family in and doing something at school is required!

After class I went to meet Jim and Carolyn who had more things for me – pillows, kitchen implements, bowls, plates, tape, a couple of maps, books and towels. It is like Xmas opening up new parcels. Jim and I caught the bus and he helped bring them home. We then walked back to town and I joined them for tea out.

It was so nice, I can’t describe the feeling of being invited somewhere and the cherry on top was being able to talk English! We wandered into centre ville and they took me to this little restaurant that serves salads, paninis, sandwiches and a few other things. On the menu apart from above were: Kangaroo (original Oz!), Rabbit –they sure like that around here. Maybe it would take off at home? Pork with baked potato and broccoli, the weird thing is it came with over half plate full of broccoli.
It was pretty good, I decided on a salad, there were some listed but then all the options you could have and you could choose lettuce and then 5 things. The choice was difficult, there was probably 25 choices. In the end I settled on bacon, chicken, tomato, onion and cheese. It was huge and tasted fantastic!
Meals are cheaper over here if you order the “menu” which is a choice of 2 or 3 courses. What we call a menu is a “carte”, hence ‘a la carte’, off the menu!
Many restaurants have menus in different price ranges. So last night my meal came with a drink 10€ as that was the choice or you could have had meal, wine, dessert and coffee for 14€.

By the way all you coffee drinkers – a coffee “café” that is standard comes in a pathetically small ‘thimble’. Haven’t seen anyone have a big cup like we tend to.

At 9:00 we said our goodbyes and I headed for the bus, I missed it by a minute! After 8pm and on Sundays buses run not so regularly, I had to wait 55 minutes for it to come. However I didn’t waste this time, I was right in the centre of the ‘place’ and there were so many people. I people watched, groups of teenagers, adults, families walking, people walking their dogs etc. The variety of people is very diverse as is the fashion. Most people smoke – can’t understand it. All over France since the first of January this year the law of no smoking in public places, bars, cafes etc came into effect. It has had an impact on businesses, as if the don’t have a “terrace” with tables then not much patronage now.
At the Lycee (15-19 year olds) you have to wait for gates to open before school and after lunch. Gathered there are all the smokers, student and teachers alike getting in the last puff! Or in between classes you see the same thing. It is so weird that it is seen to be so cool, I reckon it would be 80% of population smoke. I have nothing to back that up other rate or other smoking related illnesses.

I have read the paper everyday, whoops did I say read – I meant look at pictures and work out every 10th word! I look at the death notices, they are fascinating and are so different to ours. It lists at the top all the towns you have lived. Then it goes through your genealogy “whakapapa”. Next in the centre is usually a photo. Under this your age and then a statement that says you have now gone to join: and it lists close family that have passed, names and their dates of death.
Anyway I have been looking because I wondered about lots of early deaths maybe cancer from smoking? But most of the deaths are in the 80’s-90’s. Or maybe, I am looking in the wrong paper. This could be a possibility as the papers here are all linked to politics – very left, very right, communist etc. I don’t know what one the “ L’Est” is but maybe it is the old persons paper!

Got home about 10:15 and watched “Star Academy” for a while. This is a cross between idol, Rock Star and Big Brother. They all live in a house and you get to see them every day and then on the Friday night they perform and 1 goes home. However the public vote to get bottom 2 then the rest of the singers all stand on stage at end and they then state who out of those 2 they vote for. You also get to see the % from the public. It can be pretty cruel seeing you only got 12% or something. The judges, about 6 of them, after each performer secretly put in a score and this is averaged which also counts and then this is also made public on a leader board. Rather interesting to watch, partly because many songs are in English and I know them also the content, style is great.