First day at school

A few days before I was supposed to start, Anna sent my an e-mail to ask me if I wanted to meet her in real life, to meet the girls who took French for A level, to meet some other members of staff and to visit the school. Appointment  for Wednesday, the 28^th of September. However, I planned to go to Bishop Auckland and see where the school was located before I started the job.

The day I arrived in Bishop Auckland, I went to the tourist info centre where a lady gave me a map of the town. I kept it. I now have a good collection of maps ( York, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Sunderland, London… even a map of the tube in London). So, it has been quite easy to find the street. And to find the school, well… I just had to follow some kids with the uniform of “King James”. Clever, isn’t it? J

My first reaction when I first saw some of the girls who didn’t wear the uniform of the school was “oh my Gosh…” Indeed, one of them was only wearing what we consider in France as tights… I noticed she had a tattoo (not that I was looking at her but… everyone could notice it). I was later informed that the students who don’t have the uniform are 6^th formers. It’s the privilege of age! But the more I lived in England, the more shocked I was because of the way girls are dressed…

The school impressed me a lot. Indeed, contrary to the "modern" buildings we have in France, this one looks old and is very classy. I felt happy when I saw the place I would spend the next eight months in.

When it was time, I entered the school. “All visitors must report to main reception”. Oh no, here we are, I don’t even know where main reception is. I managed to find it and “reported myself” to the secretary. “Hello, I’m Julie, I’m visiting missus Peti… Pefi… Pethy******” ( or “how to pronounce the TH when you’re not English… well, this way the woman could guess I was the French assistant!). I waited around ten minutes before Anna arrived, and when she was here, I know I smiled a lot (though I’m smiling most of the time^^). She seemed to be so nice (which I can say she is, now that I know her). She led me to her classroom where three girls were waiting for me: Jessica, Jillian and Kathy. I think they were as shy as me! They had prepared a few questions to ask me –in French, which I was pleased to answer. And I was glad to discover that one of them had chosen to work to study the film Jules and Jim, which I like, and I could be helpful as I studied cinema. The atmosphere was very warm and friendly. The only thing I was afraid of, actually, was to tell them my age. I was 21, so to say, only 3 or 4 years older than them. I thought because I was young, they wouldn’t take me seriously. But everything was fine J

Then, we visited the school. Straight up, then one corridor on the right, one on the left, go out, go to middle school, remember the code to the door, “here is the music room”, “here is the LSU”, back to the school, “here is the staff room”, “here is…” This school is such a maze! But now, I’m fine with it :)

When you live with other people...

I was in England, in Spennymoor, in a big house with the two landlords and their daughter Emma. But I did not know until about ten days that there was another lodger. Maybe Ann or Emma told me about her, but as I was still confused and not that good at English - the "real" English I mean, not the one we are taught at uni- I did not pay intention. So, after a while in Spenny, I met Kemi. Kemi was from Nigeria and studied in Durham. That is approximately all I know about her. Because she added me on Face Book, I know that we were in the same house for her birthday. We did nothing special, we had not met yet.
The first time we met was actually... in the kitchen. She was boiling chicken and a lot of vegetables whereas I just wanted some water to "make" soup. That's all.
But if I talk about her, it's because something happened later (I cannot write only boring stuff)! Indeed, around the 20th of September, she packed her belongings. I've been told that she was leaving on Monday morning. Then I told to myself " it's quite sad... I have no friends here yet, I have spent three weeks with someone about my age and we didn't do anything..." knock knock knockin on Kemi's door... "Hi there!" Kemi looked at me as if I were completely crazy, but, nevermind, " I know you go back to Nigeria in two days, and so, I was wondering if you wanted to have one last drink before?" Still no reaction. I kept on smiling, waiting for an answer. "I don't really go to pub, she said at least, what should I wear?" Haaa!!! super! "Whatever you like, it's just for a drink!".
So, I needed to get prepared for my very first night out in... Spennymoor. In the afternoon, I walked to the town center to see where we could go and what we could do. Two pubs offered karaoke on Saturday night, it could be a good idea. Back home, I told Kemi if she was OK for a karaoke. She seemed really reluctant to the idea of going out at night, but she agreed. She told me she still didn't know what to wear, though.
We went to the Bridge. As Kemi had packed many of her clothes, she was wearing jeans and a top. I was so happy to go out for a drink that I had a nice shirt, shorts, high heels and make up. You know, I'm always afraid when I have make up to put to much blush on my cheeks. What I discovered this night made this fear vanished, completely. Indeed, women were dressed like I would be dressed for New Year's Eve, with short dress, no sleeves, with very colourful and glittering fabrics. In France, I would look ridiculous dressed that way only to go to the pub, but here, it seemed normal. Well, new cultural shock!
Before we left, Ann told me that the pubs in Spenny are quite "local". They are indeed... It seemed like everybody knew everybody and that no room was left fom "strangers". Nevertheless, I fought against my fear, ordered my pint of Foster and sat at a table. I remembered that Kemi took nothing to drink...too bad :(


Karaoke means you have to sing, and I like to sing. We had a list of songs, we just had to choose one. At the beginning, we were not really... ready to sing in front of a lot of stronger. Moreover, we could not, definitely, because two women were going one after the other, screaming in the micro and dancing at the same time as if they were pop stars, that was fun! I decided to sing, I started with Barbie girl. I think I wanted to learn English thanks to this song, but I never really tried to understand the lyrics. I thought it was just about the life of Barbie...

"I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!" so here that's fine, it still deals with Barbie...

"you can brush my hair" ok...

"undress me everywhere" oh, it sounds fun...

"I'm a blond bimbo girl in a fantasy world,

Dress me up, make me tight, I'm your dolly, 

you can touch, you can play, if you say I'm always yours" Oh my Gosh, what am I doing???

Yes, for my first song there, when I was very shy, in front of a lot of people I didn't know, I understood the lyrics... FML?

For the second song alone, I sang La Bamba and Kemi said "so you can speak French, English, German AND Spanich???" well, I can... sing La Bamba lol

I finally forced her into singing something. She did not want to be alone, so we spent a long long time to decied what song we were both able to sing - at least a song which rhythm we knew. She wanted to sing My Hump by the Black Eyed Peas. Well, I'll try to... We both took a microphone, I started. When it was her turn, she didn't sing. Oh Gosh, just say something please!!! Then, because she thought she couldn't do it, she... left me in the middle of the song. So I had to sing the two voices in the song. People were smiling, and clapped at the end. They said they liked my performance... Maybe I should trust them! lol

After my "show", we left the pub and had a walk at night in the streets. It was fine. I enjoyed that night. The day after, I didn't see Kemi, and the other day after, she left. We never said goodbye.

"No one is irreplaceable", some people say. About a week after Kemi went back to Nigeria, someone else moved in, someone really really really different. Scott, 38, divorced, likes beer, lager, cider, women, music, video games, football, has a big TV, a playstation 3 and a mobile phone to play with his PS3... Yes, I know a lot more about him! As I asked Kemi to go out for her last night, I asked Scott to go out for his first weekend. Moreover, I knew there was a band playing in a pub that night, Black Sun, so it was a good opportunity to have a drink and a talk. We went there, had a first pint. Once again, compared to the other girls and the way they were dressed, I felt like a nun. The band was good, and Scott talkative and thirsty. I had a very good night, I enjoyed his company. He offered me a pint. He had one also. And another one. And another one. He excused himself, went to the toilets, had another pint and brought me a cocktail, had another pint, went to the toilets, had a sixth pint, a seventh pint, went to the toilets again. What I didn't tell is that this happened on the 2nd of October, the day before I started the job at school... I was afraid I wouldn't wake up on time the morning after. So, I told Scott that it might be time to go back home...

On our way home, he spoke French. He tried to speak French. Because it was late, he asked me "keleuwétil?" ( "quelle heure est-il"), so I answered "it's nearly midnight". He picked some dandelions and blew on them, repeating "quelle heure est-il?" several times until I understood he was a bit... tired?

Gosh, we were home! My ears buzzed until 2am, I couldn't sleep and I was nervous about my first day at school!


Scott still lives in the house. We went out again for my birthday, with other friends and colleagues. He is a nice guy. Though sometimes noisy when he plays video games late at night  (and he swears a lot)! But I like him because the bathroom is clean after he uses it (though, sometimes, the toilet seat is up... well, he is a man)!