Although it's nothing like in the UK, and certainly not in the USA, Halloween in France is slowly starting to become a thing. As ever, I left things right to the last minute to find a costume and went for a hunt round Avignon in search of something suitable to wear. The distinct lack of costume shops proved an issue but I managed to find a pair of fluffy ear things at Claire's Accessories. Add an LBD and eye-liner nose and whiskers and voilà, costume sorted.
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| I'm a mouse, duh |
On Saturday night, Brian, an assistant from Ireland, hosted a Halloween party at his apartment that he shares with a couple of Erasmus students. After pre-drinks (or pre-game as the Americans call it) chez Kate, we headed to the party where there was a crazy clash of languages being spoken throughout the evening - French, English, Italian, German... It was also fun to meet loads of new people and catch up with some assistants I'd met at orientation.
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| Walking the streets of Avignon in our make-shift costumes |
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| With Brian and the girls |
I've joined a gym here which is great and runs loads of classes - even on Sundays! After allowing ourselves a much-needed lie-in after Saturday night's antics, Kate, the Annies and I went along to the CAF (Cuisses, Abs, Fessiers aka LBT) class, which was run by a very smiley and energetic instructor who reminded me of Caroline from BodySoc. I'm enjoying trying out all the different classes - there's one aerobics class with choreography that I find hilarious (especially following it all in French) and is run by an instructor who is basically the French Louie Spence! It feels like I'm back in Exeter again walking around in stash and sports kit.
Spent Sunday night in Vaison, ready to start back at my schools the following day. This week I've been teaching Halloween which got a great reaction from the kids. Taught vocab, sung a Halloween song (that I don't want to hear again for a very long time after this week) and played bingo. The schools are all pretty old-school but I'm loving writing on the chalk board and I have definitely mastered the art of drawing Halloween monsters - let's just say you'd want me on your team in a game of Pictionary.
On Mondays I have the 6-8 year-olds who are just adorable and on Tuesdays I teach everyone from the ages of 6-11 at my second school. The little ones are just adorable and mob me with cuddles in the playground. One of them even made me a drawing over the holidays, which is definitely going up on my wall.
Thursday was a very long day, as I commuted to Vaison from Avignon and spent a full day teaching at my third school (although my hours are changing so I'll have less time hanging around and finish earlier, woo). I've discovered I can take a bus and a train and make it back in an hour, however there was unfortunately a serious road accident so I missed my connecting train and had to take a bus back, adding an extra hour and a half to my journey.
I've been spending most of my evenings going for drinks with my flatmate, Pauline, and her friends who are all lovely. On Thursday evening we hosted a dinner party at our apartment with a group of her friends from uni and two of them, semi-pro chefs, cooked us an incredible top-quality meal with hand-selected wines to match! As you can imagine, a three-course meal for 10 with no dishwasher isn't the easiest to clean up afterwards so we all took turns washing up.
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| My flatmate, Pauline, and her friends tucking into the main |
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| Pretty-much michelin star *** |
A bientôt,
Katie x
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