So I'm currently in Lourdes waiting for a bus to take me to the mountains, but I'll discuss that on another update.
So July is pratically over and I've been on my YA for a month already. Seem to have gone very quickly, strange to think that I'm already 1/4 through France and 1/2 through this placement already! Hopefully my French is improving enough, I feel that there IS an improvement, but reste à voir if it'll be enough :)
I've been given complete responsability of the reception desk now, in that I answer the phones and respond to all the e-mails. The police rang the other day and the policeman had the strongest accent I've heard so far so had to ask him to repeat but it was all Greek to me so I had to explain that I was very sorry but I don't think I quite got what he said so I'll pass him to my colleague who might be able to help, merci bonne journée au revoir. Jay off The Inbetweeners was right, you don't want to bother the foreign police! Speaking of the police, when it was Fête Nationale a lot of the roads were closed by police and I was a bit uncomfortable that every single officer, or so it seemed, had a gun. Same when I went to Vienna and the police were on the U-bahn with massive guns. I like how British police are mainly unarmed, it's much less aggressive and friendlier, but suppose you'd respect someone with a gun a bit more maybe.
ANYWAY, one thing I am struggling with at the moment is names, which means I'm forcing everyone to spell their name for me. I made a mistake when I thought I'd heard it and didn't ask how it's spelt and we got a bit confused when this man turned up at reception and said he had a reservation. Joyce asked who he reserved to and the man said itwas a man, so Joyce looked at me andvwas like does he have an accent and the man said yeah he sounded like an Arab! I was off the hook, until I realised it was actually me and explained. So I sound like an Arab...I have no idea how to take this nugget of information, like on one hand is it better than being identifiably English, and lots of Arab countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are bilingual with French, so it's not the worst comment made, but if my accent could move the European side of the Med I'd be a lot happier.
We had a group of 16 Spanish bikers the other day and not a single one spoke French, so I explained everything to these luckily very patient Spaniards in Spanish, which was probably the scariest linguistic thing I've had to do so far. But we got there. It just reinforced the gap between my Spanish and the loves of my life French and German, but hopefully Vigo can try and sort that out. It's so cool working in a youth hostel because there's people from all over the world here; on one of my many coffee breaks I was talking to an Australian lad and a Canadian lad who were having their tea. Proper shows the spread of English from Europe to literally every side of the world. So we had a nice rant about the English weather and then about how French is taught. French is an official language in Canada but apparently it's still taught as a second language, except in Quebec, but everyone knows that's not real French ;).
We had a film night at work the other night and watched Les Intouchables, which I'd seen in German when we went to a cinema in Vienna. There it was called Ziemlich Beste Freunde. I copied it off the lad's USB stick on to my computor, so can watch it whenever now. I think it's a real shame that most British people won't watch a subtitled film because it's one of the best films I think I've ever watched. Basically, it's about a disabled man who employs a black man from the estates of Paris to be his carer, despite everybody telling him not to. Based on a true story too.
Right, had better go catch this bus. Speak soon! A plus!
Sunday 29 July 2012
Tuesday 17 July 2012
Bonjour à tous!
So I'm in Toulouse in the south of France for two months as part of my 4 months in France for my third year abroad. I'm working at Résidence Jolimont which is a youth hostel/centre for young workers. 1 week I work in the reception and another week I work in the bar, doing breakfast and then the evening shift. The hostel is located about 10 minutes out of town, which is a great location so I can go for nice walks around the town. "La Ville Rose" (the Pink City) is really beautiful and really old. I've attached a picture of Le Pont Neuf, from which on a good day you can see the Pyrenees. Hoping to go walking round there soon, I went once as a child and they were really fantastic compared to the Lake District, which I think is pretty impressive anyway! On the first Sunday of every month entry to museums is free in Toulouse, if not all of France, so I saw quite a few of them in July and am going to see the others in August. I don't think they're really worth paying for though; I went to the Natural History Museum and it was far too scientific for me, would much rather just look at stuff than have to read a load of sciency things! But when they're free I might as well innit.
As you can see from the picture IT. IS. HOT. Today it's 35 degrees and tomorrow it's 39 degrees. Would just like to point that out cus it's a bit wet in England at the moment I believe. Last Tuesday all the staff in reception and my boss went for a pique-nique next to the Observatory (which has free entry the first Friday of every month) which was really nice. It's really nice that everything at the hostel closes for Lunch, so can proper chill with people while eating. Which brings me on to the food... I have never eaten so much in my life. I don't know if it's just because they're trying to give a good service but there is soo much food! I literally feel like I'm ready to burst all the time. But it's all really healthy, lots of fruit and veg so that's good! They keep doing this mixture of green beans and brocolli which, I think, has been cooked in a stock with garlic in it, but it's proper nice - could and do eat loads of it! (Mum - take note if you want me to carry on eating brocolli.) The one thing is that French food seems to be really salty, I don't know if it's just my Mum's habits or English food in general but it seems so salty in comparison. But always remember my Mum saying that's good in a hot climate because you loose salt in sweat or something.
It's really good that it's not just a hostel but a centre for young workers too, because getting to see a few friendly faces and talking to people regularly, rather than just for a few days. Went for a jog with a lad called Anthony, who is doing wonders for my comprehension because he has a proper strong Toulouse accent; he keeps saying je panse instead of je pense, but it makes me listen hard so I suppose it's only a good thing. He took me to a park, "Parc des Argoulets" which is just outside Toulouse but it's really really nice and better to run in than the city's streets, where people don't move out of the way at all! Even when you pant "Excusez-moi" at them; it's like they get a little kick out of knowing they've stopped your run. Which reminds me to mention the driving. Ever since Susie from the Apprentice asked whether the French drive I've been determined to find out. Yes they do drive. Like maniacs. I got picked up by Kate from the airport, it took us about 20 mins to get through the barrier because nobody would wait and let people through (see queues in a minute) and then when we were in traffic a Scenic just barged its way in front of us. It had clearly done this before as it had a massive dent in it's boot. Kate reacted very well I thought; by smashing the horn and shouting "putain," which I'm not going to translate, at him. We also had a near miss when a car decided to ignore the red light and join the traffic and nearly smashed in to us. Not just our car shouted "putain" at him! Despite this crazyness on the roads, I decided to try the Vélib (see picture) which is a city wide cycle-hire scheme and went on a nice quiet bikeride around Toulouse. However, NatWest rang and said someone can see my card details so they've cancelled my account, which is fine, nothing's been taken. But a bit suspicious it was from the Vélib, so will definitely buy online in future!
Been to the cinema quite a bit, it's really cheap here compared to Odeon (even with an Orange Wednesday, which is Orange Tuesday here - well I suppose they are an hour ahead). Watched Spiderman in French, which was pretty good and then a chick-flick (didn't realise before promise!) called Un Bonheur N'arrive Jamais Seul which was good too. Was happy with the amount I understood, which is what's important. I also watched the Dictator, in VOST which basically means English, but it was soo funny I don't even feel guilty.
Last Saturday was Fête Nationale, France's national holiday, which meant that everything was closed...great. But in the evening there was a proper impressive firework display on the roof of the Médiathèque. We watched it from the Jolimont side rather than the city centre and it was really chilled, everyone just sat in the road and watched them, right nice! But then we took the metro to the city centre and to say the French don't queue is an understatement. This old woman proper pushed in, like was barging people out of the way and no one blinked an eyelid. I tried to stare her down but then realise that if you're waiting for something in France, like to walk through a barrier, if you snooze you most definitely loose and found myself near the back of the queue. So I said to myself, "when in Toulouse, act like the Toulousains" and elbowed my way to the front.
Realised this is quite long and haven't mentioned half of it! So I will update more often from now on. Basically my first two weeks, to steal a phrase off Borat, have been "GREAT SUCESS!"
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