Vendredi le 12 Decembre- X Country / Strasbourg

Off to a class at the Lycee – hadn’t met them before – I got there and the teacher again asked “What are you going to do with them?” This class was 17 years old, never seen them had know idea how good their English was, no idea of what they were doing – yet expected to teach them, with no resources, no hints etc! So I just did general conversation and they asked questions again about NZ and differences!
Raced back to the primary school for the “cross” this was a great concept. Nev went with Hermione and I was with Seph! It was held in the snow! No cancelling things here! I think we would never cancel again – the children were out in the snow for over 2 hours and perfectly fine! Not one whinge or injury!

All the children were put into different animal categories. So each animal category had 1 child from every class (about 12 per group) there were also children from the other primary school under the same organisation. The 5-6 year olds were not part of this.
Then they went to the rugby/soccer grounds beside us and all the teams were well spread out around the whole course – probably 30 teams.
Then the event ran for 1:30 hours! As each child left to go on a run around the course they were given a ticket – when they arrived back at their base camp they put it into a container. The children then could have a quick break then go again or have no break grab a ticket and go off. As a spectator it was just a continuous line of runners – as you just started and finished at your base camp on the course. No pressure! No individual winners – but at the end your ticket box was collected and counted.
It would have been pretty close to 1km per loop – Seph completed 8 trips and Hermione did 11! Hermione’s team came second with 139 tickets! Seph’s group only did 98! Both girls said they preferred this X country as no pressure - no stragglers being last and they ran so much further than at home. Maybe we could look at something like this as well as sorting out our competitive runners for C.O. as you could easily have the children collect their own tickets or have a competitive event separately for those contenders.
All the stations had parents looking after a small group – many brought thermos of milo for something warm in between times. It was a fantastic atmosphere! They had music blaring out the loud speakers to run along to. Loved it! A great finale was all the children gathered in front of the pavilion and a popular song was played, the children all sang and then spontaneously made chains and went around the snow to the music.
After this we had a picnic in the gymnasium – (roller skating hall) then returned to school for a play.
At 1:30 we walked down to a church for a small service about being together (with the other school) and there were heaps of songs. Then back to school for a degustation– cake and drink!
I then got the girls to finish early – 4:00 as we had to catch the train to Strasbourg at 5:00!

The TGV was full – maybe because a Friday night and people returning home, also maybe lots heading to Strasbourg as it is considered the capital of Christmas markets.
We arrived at 7:30 – the girls had eaten so much food we had taken on the train so we decided to wander around the streets to take in the Xmas atmosphere and to look at all the amazing lights and decorations!
Straight out of the Gare were the first set of markets – beautiful presentations. All stalls are in their own little wooden huts, which certainly add ambience and unification. Perfect for the weather, lighting, security etc. All the towns so far have these huts – the council rents them out for events. There are different sizes and frontal variances so depending on whether you are food or not you can pick what suits you. Our council should consider something like these, it really looks smart and very practical. No trestle tables to be seen!

The Marché de Noel was amazing – can’t describe it – would love to go back again. Really the Xmas spirit in the whole town and the decorations were exquisite. Definitely in the Xmas spirit now myself. We wandered around in town to the different markets for about an hour then decided we better go find our accommodation and then get tea. So off to the tram stop – on ‘D’ tram till the end (by now it was 9:30) and then a bus, had to wait at the bus stop for 25 minutes. Finally the last bus of the night arrived – unfortunately they didn’t announce each stop and we missed our stop! After talking to the driver he said it wasn’t a problem as the bus continues into Germany does a loop and returns back past! What! Anyway it turns out that in the next minute, we crossed a bridge – and were now in Germany – Kehl. We did a loop around the main centre and returned to France! How weird – it just sounds so strange!
We alighted at our stop and then the instructions were to traverse the park for about 10 minutes and we would find our accommodation – Auberge de Jeunesse – A Youth Hostel!
These were not terribly good instructions – cold dark, 10:15 at night. Crossing a park? We think of walking through grass, gardens and maybe a path. I couldn’t even find a “park”! As it turns out we decided to ring and ask for directions from where we were – the lady couldn’t tell me, she didn’t recognize an equestrian centre nor did she seem to be able to give us directions from a walk bridge over the river – she suggested going back to the bus stop and walking behind the church!
On closer inspection I read the address of the equestrian centre and it was number 1 of the street the hostel was on! So we continued down the road…. It was quite deserted… I then found a place with a lot of cars in the carpark and I met some people on the way out and asked for directions – luckily they had a map in their car and it turned out that the next building over would be the hostel. So on we went – FOUND IT!
Couldn’t believe the receptionist not understanding where we were as it was a one way road and she must have had to pass it everyday to get to work. Also she did speak English so no confusion there. Anyway now 10:30 – no tea! All pizza deliveries had finished so we were forced to get a sandwich and piece of fruit from a vending machine. The girls ate theirs in bed at 10:45! Whew! What a day!