Christmas

Today is my last day in Apt before Christmas and I woke up to clouds- a rare sight these days in Provence. I got up early, had my porridge and went off to school, determined to not let the day be as bad as Tuesday. With the first class we played Pictionary with the Christmas vocabulary we had already learnt- and thankfully they understood quickly and were suitably competitive to concentrate on remembering the words they had learnt. At break the head teacher invited me to the Christmas staff meal- and although I can't make it because it's next week- it's the first school that have invited me and included me in their plans so I was pleased to be asked. The secretary came and chatted to me in English- I think she likes to practise because although I try to address her in French she always replies in English. She wanted to know how we celebrate Thanksgiving. I told her I was English and it was an American tradition, and it was two weeks ago. Oh- she said- so America celebrates Thanksgiving and England celebrates Halloween instead? Not quite... I tried to explain, England celebrate Christmas and Halloween like France, but Thanksgiving is an extra tradition in America, in November. With the gift of hindsight, I think she had confused Thanksgiving and Christmas and has probably gone home thinking the English don't celebrate Christmas and the Americans celebrate it the third week of November.

Waiting for my next class, I had two compliments from the students; 'you dress is good,' from one of the girls and 'you face is good' from one of the boys. One of the things that surprised me as we went up to class was that two of the boys came in fighting. The teacher shouted at them to stop and held out her arm to divide them, at which point one of the boys pushed his elbow past her and punched the other boy on the eye. It was a pretty ineffectual punch but the teacher pushed the first boy against the wall, and he retaliated by shoving his shoulder against her. She just shouted at him again and he burst into tears. He spent the rest of the class zipped fully into his hood and as far as I could see the incident was over. I was amazed. Physical violence against another student is severe enough in England but against a teacher...I'm sure the punishment in England would be expulsion.

In that class we did a Christmas wordsearch- a moderately easy activity for the last lesson before Christmas- or so I thought. There were several students who put up their hand to ask me, 'where is 'Christmas pudding?', seemingly unaware the point of a wordsearch was to SEARCH for the words. Another girl would put up her hand and say, 'I have found Father Christmas' and indicate the word on the grid, but then ask where the word ended. I pointed to the word underneath. 'Father Christmas ends with an 's' so it ends at the 's'. It's not FATHERCHRISTMASXGDS'.

When I got back to school in the afternoon my lessons went better- I played Pictionary with the really naughty class with the sanction that their team would lose a point if they were talking when it wasn't their turn to guess. It didn't mean they were necessarily quiet but it was a tool to quieten them down when things were getting out of hand. A bit of competition works wonders. When I went back downstairs to wait for the next class, the secretary stopped me. 'I just wanted to wish you a happy thanksgiving.' I was so confused I only realised later she was trying to say happy Christmas and I hadn't wished her one back in return.

After school, my final appointment of the week was with a French woman who was interested in speaking French with me in return for the chance to practise English conversation. I went to her apartment, which is a beautifully cosy apartment, with wall to wall books and a gorgeous view over Apt. She made tea, and had these delicious traditionally French biscuits and we talked for three hours in French, about my life, my family, her life, her sons and husband, her work, my time in France, secularism in France (I've been well prepared for that conversation from all my oral classes at Uni) and numerous other things. Up until day I was under the impression my French had improved very little and it's still hard to gage but I understood everything she said, and she understood everything I said- and she also said my French is a very good level- so after three months in Provence- I'll take that! I left her apartment at 8 and now here I am, sitting on my bed, packed up, ready for the long journey home tomorrow. This time tomorrow I'll be home, and it's definitely time.

So thank you to everyone who has been following my blog, it means a lot to me that you want to know how I'm getting on. My next post will be when I return in January, probably in low spirits, but with lots to look forward to. So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, or should I say Joyeux Noel et Bonne Nouvelle Annee!