Coming home

Saturday. 9h15. One suitcase, one back pack and a bag. Rachel helped me to the metro station - down all the stairs. I then took the metro one stop to Saint Charles and then bought my bus ticket. I met Alicia at the bus stop and we took the bus together to the aeroport. Goodbye Marseille. I wasn't sad to leave because in less than two weeks I'll be back. And also, it didn't feel like Christmas in Marseille, I was looking forward to going back to England to see my family. I was flying with Ryan Air. The luggage limit is 15kg and somehow, don't ask me how because I was travelling light, my suitcase weighed 17 odd kilos! The woman at check in told me I had to remove some of the things from inside. I went away to the scales at the side with Alicia and removed my coat, jeans, a couple of tops - I gave them to Alicia. I then went back to the woman, she re-weighed my suitcase and told me I could go though. (They don't take your suitcase off of you at this point, you have to put it yourself onto a conveyor belt thing) so I went behind the wall and put my coat and jeans back in the suitcase! I mean, what did she think I was going to do with the things I took out of my suitcase?! I then put my suitcase on the conveyor belt and went to where they search your hand luggage. I was wearing bracelets which set the metal detector off. This was proving to be a stressful journey! I then learnt that Ryan Air don't give you a seat, it's first come, first served. Which, I soon learnt, leads to a mad rush of people trying to get the best seats! They then kept us waiting in a queue, standing up, with nothing to lean on even for nearly an hour. The flight was 45 minutes late taking off and no one apologised, no one even mentioned the delay or explained why there was a delay! I was late landing and it took the best part of an hour for me to get my bag and renew my railcard and buy a ticket from Stansted Airport to Liverpool Street, a journey which took 45 minutes on the Stansted Express. I then met Alex there and I bought a ticket to Birmingham International. I wanted to get the 17h38 direct train from London to Birmingham International but my ticket was only valid on london mainland trains and all the direct trains were virgin ones. I was quite prepared to get on a virgin train and either a) feign ignorance when someone questioned my ticket or b) pretend to be french. Alex, however, told me to not do that and so I asked at the station and the man told me to run to platform 11 and get the 17h15 train to Northampton and change there for Birmingham International. I got on the train and asked the ticket man who told me there would be no trains from Northampton to Birmingham International. I told him that the man at the station told me there would me. He said he'd check. I had visions of being stranded in Northampton - miles from where I wanted to be! The man came back and said there would be a train from Northampton to Birmingham but that there would be a 30 minute wait. I could cope with that! It was being stranded in Northampton that I couldn't cope with. I eventually got to Birmingham International at 19h55 - a whole hour later than the direct 17h38 train would have got me there for, even though the one I got to Northampton left the best part of half an hour earlier! Madness! I eventually got back to Ludlow a whole 13 hours after leaving my appartment that morning. Exhaustion.



It's really strange being back in England. It's hard to explain and people don't seem to understand. It's like I have super powerful hearing because I can understand everything that everyone is saying whether I want to or not. It's also strange to think that everyone can understand me too. I don't like it. I keep using random french words and saying 'bonjour' and 'merci' to people. I wheeled my suitcase over a lady's foot in London, I said 'pardon' and she looked at me and then I was like, oops, wrong language, 'sorry'. The currency is strange - so heavy and clumbersome. The coins are so big. Even the green man at pedestrian crossings seems big. I keep looking the wrong way when I cross the road and people pass on the left here and I keep going right.

Les Restos du coeur

After Al Dente I came home. Later on, at about 18h I left to take the tram to La Joliette and then the bus. I got on the bus and was waiting for it to leave when I saw the number 35 bus pull into La Joliette. I thought, that's strange, I'm sitting on the number 35, aren't I?! I asked the lady infront of me 'Excusez moi, quel numero est ce bus?' It was the 83, not the 35. Oops, good job I realised or I'd have never made it to L'Estaque and Les Restos du coeur! After a quick change of bus I was on my way. Les Restos du Coeur is a charity which feeds the homeless - les sans abris. It's a bit like a soup kitchen. Every evening there is a bus, called Le Mauraude, which goes around Marseille. One evening it does the north - les quartiers nords, and the next evening it'll do les quartiers suds, and so it alternates like that. It gives a bag of food to the sans abris - those that want it. In the bag is a small small slice of emmantal, a tiny tiny chocolate bar, a yoghurt, a small cake. Then they get a baguette, salad thing and either a tin of salmon, tuna, sardines or pate. Boulangeries donate the bread. We went to a boulangerie who gave us three sacks of warm bread. They were really generous. We also had in our van, water, blankets, shoes, socks and sleeping bags for those who asked for them. There was also hot water to make soup, chocolate and coffee. We started out in the 15e arr along La Rue de Lyon and then drove through the 15e arr to the 3e arr - Bougainville, National, Desiree Clary and then to the 2e arr - La Joliette and Le Panier (where I live) and to Vieux Port. It was really really cold and the other volunteers - Kuidot, Nadine and Florence said it had been a quiet night - at the end of the night we'd seen 48 sans abris! That means I'd made in excess of 48 hot chocolates, soups, coffees (some of them had 2 or 3 drinks). We'd met a man who lives in a van. He apparently used to live in a car but someone gave him the van to live in. I asked Nadine why he lived like this and she said that he does small jobs but can't afford to rent anywhere. We met a Spanish speaking Polish man. The sans abris knew when and where Le Maurade would stop and they were waiting for us. Some of them seemed better dressed that others. I think there were les vrais sans abris - people with literally only what they were standing in, and then people who were maybe poor or mal loges. Marseille has the Samu Sociale. It's an organisation that provides overnight accommodation for les sans abris. You can call 115 from any phone, it's a free call, and they will come and fetch you and put you in a foyer for the evening. One man who was sat at a bus stop wrapped in a blanket agreed to us calling 115 so he could go to a foyer. He didn't have any shoes and was shaking he was so cold. We gave him a warm drink and a bag of food. Only 2 or 3 of the 48 people we saw smelt of alcohol/were drunk. The majority were men (I can only remember 2 women). The majority seemed to be from northern african origin. It was a real eye opener to go around Le Panier. There was a man there who we gave a sleeping bag too as well as a bag of food and a hot drink. When we left he said 'merci madmoiselle, merci beaucoup, en tous cas je vous remercie'. He, like the majority of the sans abris we saw that evening, were so grateful, so pleased to see us. I said 'de rien, je vous en prie'. I mean, what's a polystyrene cup of instant hot chocolate?! It made me realise that when I walk home I walk literally a few metres from where these people sleep. I don't know why they're homeless. They must have had family, homes etc at one point. I wonder what happened for them to become sans abris? Marseille may be a candidate for European Capital of Culture 2013, millions of Euros may be being spent in l'amelioration of Marseille's centre, but the sans abris remain. Leave the centre, go away from Le Vieux Port and La Rue de la Republique and what you see doesn't warrant the title 'European Capital of Culture'. There are sans abris in the centre but there 'well hidden', in areas where the tourists won't go. Before Marseille worries about it's next underground carpark of extending it's metro at La Timone maybe a thought should be given to les sans abris.

Aubagne

Top - Aubagne's Christmas decorations

Second - A street in Aubagne

Third - The Christmas santon market in Aubagne

Fourth - The Christmas market

Bottom - Aubagne

On Saturday I met Louise at La Timone metro at 9h and we got the bus to La Pomme where Aimee was supposed to get on (the bus stops directly outside her house). She said to press the bell when the bus when right at a chinese so that it would definitely stop so she could get on. We didn't notice the chinese so Louise called her and she said get off, get off. Luckily someone had pressed the button for La Pomme and we got off. She was still inside her house. We walked to the next bus stop to pass the time until the next bus. We then went to Aubagne where it was raining, windy, cold. You could really tell that Aubagne wasn't in Marseille just from it's weather! We walked around the Christmas and santon market and then went for a hot chocolate. Aimee had to leave to get back to Marseille for a Russian conversation exchange (she's studying Russian and French at uni and has met some French speaking Russians who want to learn English). Me and Louise stayed a bit longer and had a walk around. We went around some of the streets and around the market again. Aubagne is really small and similar to Aix in it's architechture. We stayed until lunch time and then got the bus back to Marseille. It took about 40 minutes. We got on the metro at La Timone and got off at La Prefecture to get some food. We went in Al Dente and ate. I had ravilois aux trois fromage. We then went our separate ways home.

Students? In a Lycee?! Whatever next...?

Picture the scene: a language assistant sitting in her rather chilly classroom at 8h on a cold, clear Thursday morning. Her expectations are so low that she has come prepared today with a good book. 8h, no students, 8h05, no students. But then, a knock at the door. No, it can't be. Not students, not in a Lycee, not in my classroom. But oh yes, there they were. Not quite bright eyed and bushy tailed but nevertheless, they were there. My BTS class had turned up and what's more, they actually wanted to be taught! Shock, horror. At 9h I went to my anglais renforce class, again, low expectations but no, they were all there. And again I had to teach. I actually got to give my text messaging lesson that I've been trying to give for weeks. I wasn't used to this, students, in a Lycee? Whatever next... 10h, another class, more teaching. I did global warming with my terminales. So, it was now 11h and I had taught 3 classes. That's more than I've done in the last 2 weeks! After that I came home for lunch and then went back for mes secondes at 15h. And yes, they were there! I couldn't believe it, 4 classes out of 4!

L'OM v Liverpool

Top - me and Lucy

Second - Steven Gerrard's penalty

Third - the pitch

Bottom - outside Le Stade Velodrome

After work I met up with Rachel. We went to hers and ate together, then Lucy came round and we walked to La Joliette metro together. Rachel went to meet Louise at Vieux Port. Me and Lucy took the metro to Le Stade Velodrome. It was busy. Everyone was going to the match. We didn't have to queue to get in because they were searching everyone and it was separate for men and women and the women were few and far between so we got through really quickly. There was a clever machine which scanned our ticket to let us through and then we went to our seats. It was really impressive to look down on the pitch and to see all the fans all around the stadium. We were sat with the OM supporters, there didn't seem to be many Liverpool fans there, there was a bit of red opposite us but not as many fans as we'd expected. We were quite far back but we could see the whole pitch and everything that was going on. It was strange, if you missed something there was no replay like there is on sky sports, also, there was no commentary (apart from the man next to us). Liverpool seemed to start off better with more possession and then obviously they got the penalty and scored, and then scored again and OM seemed to adope a defeated attitude. Liverpool enjoyed lots of possession but then it changed. OM began to play and me and Lucy both expected OM to score before half time but they didn't. OM played quite dirtily and the supporters were not impressed that they were losing. Even though OM now had more possession that weren't playing very well. In the second half they had most of the possession but it was Liverpool who kept scoring. Towards the 70 minute mark lots of OM supporters began to leave. They knew they had lost, that they were out of the champions league. We stayed until the end of course and then got the metro (which was packed, we had to queue for an age just to get through the ticket barriers) back to La Joliette. It was good the way they kept the OM and Liverpool supporters separately. OM supporters used one metro station and the Liverpool supporters used another one. This was because Liverpool supporters were on one side of the stadium near to one metro supporters and OM supporters were on the otherside near to the next metro stop. The atmosphere in the stadium was amazing, the fans were singing from one side of the stadium to the other and held up coloured paper to spell out 'droit au but' - OM's caption thing. Sky sports may provide replays and a commentary but you don't get the atmosphere! Yes, so, it was amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Beyond a joke

Just before 8h. I arrive at Lycee and it is again 'bloque'. I went round the back way to get in and went to the staff room to put my lunch (chickpeas with courgette and red pepper) in the fridge. I then went to my room and waited, like I do every week, for my terminale class. Even though the Lycee had been 'bloque' there were students in the school and the protestors at the gate had been moved on. I honestly expected this class to come this week. The didn't come last week because the teacher was away, they didn't come the week before because the teacher forgot to send them (I mean, it's the teacher that specifically wanted me to work with these students and then she forgets to send them?!) Surely they had to come this week, didn't they? No, 8h15, no students. 8h30, still not students. 8h45, no, they weren't coming. Grr. Yet again, I'd got myself there for 8h for nothing. I had to wait until 10h to see if my 2 terminale ES students would arrive. They were there, thank goodness. And so was the teacher, you know, the 'il faut que tu saches' teacher. She apologised to me for only just giving me the next text but she had been 'unable to find my casier' - it's got my name on it for goodness sake! Anyway, I looked at the commentaire that they'd done at home (it turns out they didn't do it in class as a controle last Friday, they have it this Friday instead so the fact I asked them to do it at home was neither here nor there, all it did was serve as a draft attempt - stupid teacher, grr). We then read the new text together, which is very very hard, much harder than the last one and I thought that was hard. After this class I should have had my BTS class but they didn't come. So, another hour of nothingness. Then it was lunch time so I went to the staffroom and ate. I then returned to my classroom for the lesson with my blind student but he wasn't there. I was really really beginning to get fed up by this point. But it was ok, Agnes had told me that she would send me 2 students next lesson. The spanish teacher had reassured her that 5 members of the class were in school. So, I waited and waited and waited and they didn't come! Why they didn't come I have no idea. To be honest, I'm not even sure I care anymore. At 15h I waited for my secondes but of course, they didn't come. I left at 15h30. I plan my lessons, I turn up, I know what I'm doing, the kids could learn a lot with me because I'm damn good at my job when I get the chance to do it. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I will try again on Thursday and if there are no students at 8am and my anglais renforce is cancelled I will leave. I refuse to sit in a classroom for 8 hours for nothing. Needless to say, I am not a happy bunny!

Christmas time in Marseille

My camera, which broke a while back, has miraculously started to work again. I don't know why. I don't know how. I don't really mind. I'm just extremely happy that it's decided to work again! I was convinced it was broken. So, I have taken some photos of the christmas lights in Le Panier and around Vieux Port...

Top - Vieux Port

Middle - La Canabiere

Bottom - Le Panier