Keys

I got up this morning at 6am in order to arrive at my Lycee for 7h50. I had a class from 8h to 9h where I had to talk to them about a cartoon strip of 2 men on a bench- one man telling the other man to 'get out' and then that man falling onto the floor. I then stayed with the teacher to introduce myself to her next class who I would usually be with from 15h to 16h on a Tuesday afternoon. They are all boys and are quite a challenging group but they seemed intrigued by me - the fact that I hadn't spend my whole life living in France and that I spoke English seemed enough to please them. This class were clearly besotted with me even if I do say so myself. I only stayed the first 15 minutes or so, just to introduce myself. I then had a break. During the break I had to go to get the keys to the rooms. In France each teacher has a set of keys for the rooms in which they teach. I was given keys for G01 and G assist. The G01 key was to be returned at the end of the day as a copy of it hadn't yet been made for me. I went at 11h to G assist with my key. Olivia was sending me 3 BTS students to work with. I was to help them prepare their oral exam where they have to talk about the work experience they've done. The key for G assist didn't work. Hmm. I went back to where I'd got the keys from and she gave me a second key, which, I might add, looked completely different from the first key she'd given me. I went back to my classroom and there were 3 students waiting for me. The second key didn't work either so we took it back. We then went to the secretariat to ask if there was a spare room anywhere as it appeared that no one in the school had a key that worked for G assist! We were sent to another office and, 25 minutes into the lesson, were finally allocated to a room. After that lesson I was supposed to have a class with Astriks but when I got to the room it was locked and the students were all standing outside. They told me she wasn't here today. I thought maybe they were just saying that because she was late and they didn't want a lesson but thinking about it, I realised I hadn't seen her yet today. I went to the staff room but none of the English teachers were there so I randomally asked another teacher what I should do. She said to go to the secretariat who would be able to tell me if Astriks was in the building. I did and Astriks was supposedly in the building. I went back to the class room, some of the students were still waiting. One of them said to me that I could speak to him in English so I did to which he replied 'oh, putain' as he hadn't got a clue what I'd said. I therefore reverted back to the french. I went back to the staff room for lunch and explained my somewhat disasterous morning to the other English teachers. Oh, yes, and I forgot to mention my key to the photocopying room didn't work either... After lunch I had 2 classes. The first was with another BTS group and the second was preparing students for their oral exam. As there was no key to my room I had to just use a free room. For the second class the students had to choose between two pictures and then talk about it. They couldn't do it. The couldn't even tell me that there was a picture of a dog on a plate with a knife and fork let alone explain to me that it was an advert by the vegetarian society to try and persude us to not eat meat. I felt like I was bullying them but they were so reluctant to speak! Argh! I went to write on the board, I got one of the boardmarkers out that I'd been given the day before and couldn't get the lid off. The thing was wrapped in selophane! When the bell went at 15h I was so ready to go home. I texted Rachel and we met at Vieux Port with Louise - an assistant I hadn't met before from Ireland, and Aimee. We went for a jus d'orange and then to the credit agricole where we bumbed into Mairead. We went to the library and then all went out separate ways. I went with Rachel to the supermarket where we bought pasta and tomatoes, pepper, courgette, cheese and carrot. We went back to her appartment to make pasta and sauce with cheese and crakers. Delicious. After we went out to meet Lucy and John and then I went home.