"Ça va, mademoiselle...?"

I know I only updated yesterday afternoon, but even a few small tasks can provide enough entertainment for a blog post (or probably more).

As I said, yesterday afternoon I hit the bank. I say hit, I mean that I sort of meekly followed Fanny - my teacher - into the Crédit Agricole (which apparently isn't reserved for farmers as I thought) and hoped for the best. As I'm sure many other English language assistants are feeling, it's quite a daunting task. I was lucky in the sense that all the paperwork I'd prepared wasn't necessary; Fanny was my ticket in, so to speak, and the previous assistante had had an account there last year so it wasn't an unknown situation. I asked a few questions about bank cards and chequebooks and attempted to understand everything the bank man said but that wasn't entirely easy...

After the bank, we drove round to my school in Bolbec, Collège Roncherolles, and had a look at the flat I'll be moving into once the hot water problem is fixed. It is massive for me, but I'm looking forward to filling it with my photos and blankets and decorating the walls with things. They're not even bothered about blu-tack or pins like they cared in my university halls. Bonus. Following this, Fanny drove me to my school in Gruchet-le-Valasse, or just Gruchet as it is often called, and I had a quick look, and then we went to the big supermarché, Carrefour, just next to the school. They have shops inside the supermarket which was interesting, including SFR (a phone company) where we made inquiries about SIM cards - I'm lucky enough to have my normal phone already unlocked to any SIM card - and internet contracts. Again, I didn't do much speaking, although I did ask about download limits in French (that A Level word téléchargement was clearly drummed into me). Soon, when I have access to my bank account, I'll be able to make calls to any number in Britain for free under my contract. Watch out guys, you don't get away that easily.

Brief mention for a) the costs and b) the cool electronic price stickers in Carrefour. They don't have stickers even, they're electronic signs, like you'd get on a clock. I hadn't seen these before and geeked out over it a little bit... Yes, I'm pretty sad. Like you didn't already know.

Today I slept in quite late again and, as told, there was a lady here doing some ironing for the family when I got up. I'd been warned she was quite chatty, but after a brief greeting, I was met with silence for a whole hour. Awkward silence. So I just got on with some vocabulary. Later though, as the rain poured down, she made a comment that led to a full conversation. A pretty one-sided one, yes. I did a lot of the nodding and smiling and saying "oui" that has become the norm, although I did get the gist of most things she was saying... people getting fat, how you can't sit around all day, who she works for and, at the end, "have a good day!"

In Bolbec...

It was a coincidence that after she left I went for a walk. I went the wrong way at first and thought it was a bit quiet before I checked my phone and realised my error. When I reached the town centre, I found the town hall and a memorial to the War and Jewish victims of the town , which appeared to just be one family. I like War-related things, so that was a good start. The rest of my walk involved some shops, a successful exchange in French, someone's poor attempt at flirting with me (see the title), getting my bearings by finding the bank from yesterday and my bus stop to the train station. It's a bit of a walk from the school so I might have to do some thinking - I can't expect people to give me lifts all the time. The town itself is pleasant, even if smaller than I'm used to (being a city girl), so I'm really going to have to do things to keep myself busy and happy, but that's all part of the experience.

Tonight I went with Fanny to pick up her kids from school, and I think I understand their French just a little bit better today, as well as that of everyone else. Her daughter, holding my hand, shouted "c'est ma copine!" ("she's my friend!") in the street which was adorable and we played some language barrier-free peek-a-boo through the car window and a tissue. Well, why not. I've also had lots of conversation with Fanny about Britain, France, the United States and all manner of things, which is brilliant.

Tomorrow I go to meet the staff at Collège Roncherolles, and then I meet up with another assistante who lives about fifteen minutes away and has a car, and we're going furnishing shopping to find some things with which to decorate our flats. Soon I'm hoping to finally meet some other assistants in the Rouen académie, and see Rouen itself, and I'm told there's another person coming to teach in Bolbec, from New Zealand or Australia, and that's exciting. As is the prospect of the travelling I'm going to do. I'm apprehensive about doing good lessons for the students but, so far, I'm not homesick. I think it's because of the great welcome I've had and that can only be a good thing. Nonetheless, I'm falling into a decent sleeping pattern already because this language business is hard work, even if I'm not speaking it so much yet.

And on that note...