Week 30 - The Penultimate

It's been a rather eventful penultimate week back in Avignon, comprising of everything from 20th birthday celebrations, lunch with Roman gladiators and an emergency trip to the dentist.

I landed back in Marseille last week to a beautiful sunny day - classic that as I reach the end of my contact the weather starts to get really good. It was a fairly quiet weekend in Avignon as everyone was gradually beginning to filter back from their holidays. Pauline and I had a few chilled evenings at Red Sky and caught up with the girls while assessing Diane's waitressing skills at Ginette & Marcel.

Kate, Annie and I were also invited to tea by one of the ladies at our gym who put on a serious display of cakes and chatted away to us about life in Avignon with the Amélie soundtrack playing in the background.

Monday saw Pauline reach the tender age of 20, which obviously meant a night out at Red Sky with the crew (including one of their university tutors). Despite my 6am start the next morning, everyone was invited chez nous for afters - we did have birthday bunting, a slightly questionable (French flour is just not the same) birthday cake and vodka jelly prepared, after all. Unfortunately the neighbours weren't quite as keen to celebrate Pauline's birthday in the early hours of Tuesday morning and it wasn't long before we had the police knocking on our door so we were forced to relocate the party elsewhere.

After a slight toothache on Tuesday, I woke up the following morning to a stabbing pain in my wisdom tooth and a gum the size of a golf ball. This didn't seem promising. Putting on my best French accent despite the lack of ability to move my mouth, I called all 9 dentists I could find in Avignon and desperately pleaded for an emergency appointment. Just as I was about to give up hope and overdose on painkillers, I got a call back from the first dentist I called (typical) who had a sudden gap they could squeeze me in. Within 5 minutes I was in the dentist's chair and she very sweetly prescribed me some anti-inflammatorys.

That afternoon I met up with Annie for milkshakes (couldn't physically consume anything else just yet) and we had a little panic session over all the French admin we needed to sort out before we go. Phone contract has now been cancelled and packing is about to commence. Later, Ghislaine and I went for a walk to the Palais Gardens to enjoy the sunshine before heading to tandem.

Two of my classes were cancelled on Thursday because the Romans of Vaison-la-Romaine were visiting school! This just meant I got to spend more time with my favourite CM2 class where we basically spent the lesson playing the celebrity guessing game. The three 'Roman soldiers' ate lunch with us in the staffroom which was quite entertaining - they were fully dressed in gladiator sandals and body armour.

Fair to say it's been quite emotional going into work this week and preparing to say goodbye. I've armed myself with several giant bags of sweets ready for next weeks classes. Going to miss my kiddies.

Friday night was DJ Vessel's final Pub Z with all the assistants so was a great chance to see everyone again and start saying our goodbyes *sob*. Ghislaine and I headed to Brian's for his famous soup (butter is the secret ingredient) after tandem, followed by pres before we headed to Pub Z and obviously ended up in Red Zone at the end of the night.

Another 3 hours sleep - this seems to be becoming a habit out here - then an early start this morning to go for a hike/take an English lesson in Les Alpilles with the sweetest local woman. After the hike we popped into the Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy for a look around at where Van Gogh was a self-admitted patient back in the late 1800s.

Now time to finally get down to doing some uni work that's due next week - we do have some assessments to do on a Year Abroad, promise!

Bisous, Katie x