Ma chere mama c’est a ton tour de te laisser parler d’amour! Ma chere mama c’est a ton tour de te laisser parler d’amour! :) xxx
Yesterday it was one of my student’s birthdays so we sang to her in class! Her name is Ocèan! I also received a present from a student on Monday and one on Tuesday! Yes my children love English lessons even though I haven’t a clue what I’m doing and they probably aren’t learning much! :P
Anyway last week I was sick with a chest infection. The week started off fine at Sampiero and Residence des Iles. Mondoloni went into Res des Iles to tell everyone I was stressed out so all the teachers were coming up to me saying ‘don’t be stressed’ well that’s easy for you to say you are a teacher and you have all the material you need! I’m an assistant acting as a teacher… how is that not stressful? Anyway here is a photo outside my two morning classes: Mme Merlo has CM2 who are sort of bright they sort of get things but they also have English for an hour and a half… therefore I don’t think they like it too much. And Mme. Grimaldi has CM1 who are not bright at all. They all just stick there hands up calling out ‘maeva’ or ‘maitress’ and grimaldi sits at her desk and says ‘no I’m no there maeva is the maitress now’ uh… (oh CM2 is 10 year olds the oldest kids, CM1 is 9 year olds. CM2 have had English (they should have had English) for two years and CM1 for one year.)
So by Wednesday I was feeling really crappy and thusday I was at Anna’s all day and skipped out of work. And then I skipped work Friday as well. So I’ll have those two schools which I haven’t had for three weeks for the first time this week and then we go on holiday for two weeks! Crazy.
Here are some random photos:
Nighttime outside my house – crane and moon:
This is near anna’s house – we walk from the boulangerie on rue fesch down an alley and pass this little street on the way.
Here is the entrance to anna’s building
Some apartments through a window
Laundy and concrete – I love it!
Wednesday Thursday and Friday were all pretty crap days where I lay in bed and didn’t do much felt crappy and Saturday also was not very eventful but I think we had pancakes that morning and it rained. And maybe Saturday night or Friday night we went to clara’s house – she just moved into an apartment very close to where we live and her street is called boulevard madame mere (so cute!). everyone here except me and thom and anna all live in one room tiny studio apartments. We are so lucky we got the villa!
Sunday… we went with one of thom’s students from the Lycee and his girlfriend and another friend to his friend’s cottage outside ajaccio – WAY outside of ajaccio. We drove all the way around the bay for an hour to a place of shimmering clear blue waters! It was so beautiful there! And it was an intense drive. We passed Porticco which is close to ajaccio and an even huger tourist hot spot. There is also a really beautiful beach there but it has a really really bad undertow so people die there every year so we won’t go swimming there. But swimming season is pretty much over now, I think. Me and thom keep saying we’ll go in December!
Here is where we were from above – the sea sparkling in the sunshine with the dramatic cliffs in the background, the Genoese tower and that blue sky! Wow!
It actually was that blue! It seems unbelievable. The Genoese towers are built all over the island and someone in one can see all the other towers so they would set off smoke signals if there was danger so everyone on the island would know and be prepared! Cool huh!
Here is the entrance to his little cabin – the gate is definetly typical here and the tree with the little fruits on it – you can eat the red ones but I can’t remember what it’s called. You can also make jam from it!
Inside the cabin. It’s just one room with a bed a table some chairs and a table and a pull out sofabed. Simple but perfect.
Outside. The dirt bit we played petang on (aka bachie (?) ball in English) basically you toss balls at another little ball. After stuffing yourself with food it’s just right – you don’t have to expel too much energy!
The we went to the beach
and there were JELLY FISH in the water! I’ve never seen a jelly fish before ever in my life!
And I TOUCHED ONE not the sting part though the top you can touch. It was jelly like and bumpy texture. Sometimes I feel like I’m turning into a jelly because I’m teaching little kids how to say hello and witch all day long!
Here is a destroyed cabin – apparently the corsican’s are an aggressive people and if they want to live somewhere they go in and blow up whatever is there and pre-existing but uninhabited. Anyway mom I thought we could do a little fixing up and hey what a nice house we’d have for ourselves in Corsica?!?!
Thom and his student sebastien looking at ‘arepeds’ and sea urchins.
Ahhh live sea urchin! My mme martelli teacher told me yesterday that in February they eat sea urchin – just in time for your arrival mom! I held the sea urchin too and it moved and sebastien showed me the mouth ohh weird. I have two for pets now they are called spike and squat – they are not alive anymore but decaying! (decaying outside).
Sebastien the fire we ate from and Julia his girlfriend.
We had quite a feast. They had every kind of syrop (they like to drink syrop in water here … like we have Shirley temples… they just drink grenadine with water… mint with water… etc.), four kinds of cured Corsican meats (which I didn’t take a picture of…dommage!), and lamb sausages all with bagette of course because nothing is eaten without bagette but since bagette is less than a euro… why not! We also ate cake – Julia made an apple cake! So cute and so good! The corsican’s are also very generous people.
Here is the side of the cabin with shadows on it
And those fruits again. They look kind of like oranges but don’t be mistaken they aren’t.
Little window in the side of a cabin
AREPED!!! (aka a barnacle I think) – I ate it… it was chewy and salty like the sea. It was interesting. Julia is crazy for those things so I searched for them for her and she would eat one and prepare one for me to eat too. We were a good areped team :)
Then we drove over some crazy freaking roads to this fabulous beach, which is like nothing I’ve seen. The sad was so fine and the water so blue and it wasn’t warm it was fresh all I wanted to do was dive in!
Wow we might go back to go swimming this weekend if it’s not rainy or cold (fingers crossed!)
The restaurant in the background in the last photo had a pirate flag flying!
Then THIS CUTE DOG CAME ALONG and made my day but I wanted to keep him and he looks like he wants to come with me doesn’t he?!
Aww so cute.
Can’t you just hear him saying ‘yeah love me! I want to be loved!!’
And when we were leaving he looks like he’s saying ‘what? Where are ya goin? You’re leaving noooo!’
As we drove home and the sun lowered in the sky, we found a beach where you could see ajaccio across the bay, the iles sanguinaires and a snowy mountain!
Ils sanguinaire:
Ajaccio
Snowy mountain
And then we saw the jedi knight (aka mondoloni) jogging!
Here is a sunrise from Monday morning
Weather wise so you aren’t too jealous: it is chilly in the morning. It’s a crisp 13 in the morning and at night probably as low as 9 but during the day when the sun is up in the sky with no clouds it warms up again to 20 or more I think. I don’t know exact numbers… there is however a pharmacie near me (imagine a pharmacie nearby?!) with a flashing pharmacie sign that tells the time and temperature in it! It’s almost as good as the NRB or whatever that sign is on the subway line to York!
Oh yes the doctor prescribed me FOUR things for my chest infection… but not one of them seemed to be something directly related to helping that. And it all cost 25 euro! Jesus! I was like ‘is all this really necessary?’ and he ‘yes yes it is’. Right. But I also have a new friend named marie ange who teaches at Sampiero (my Monday school) who took me to the doctor, waited for me then went to the pharmacie with me and when we met the doctor she came over and said ‘she’s english’ and he said ‘oh good I can’t speak any English! Let’s go!!’ of course it doesn’t matter because I can speak French but when it came time that I had an allergy to a medicine that didn’t go over so well:
Dr. “are you allergic to anything”
Me. “yes”
Dr. “what is it?”
Me. “I only know the name in English and it’s something for chest infections”
Dr. “…”
it was kind of funny anyway! I get reimbursed at the end of November. I also get paid in t minus THREE DAYS!!!! Thank God! I’m glad I got all that stuff in on time. It was a challenge.
One more story: On Monday I went to Anna’s after work at Sampiero (thankfully Anna lives on the same street as Sampiero!) so then instead of being wise and not eating junk food… we went to the boulangerie that has 60 centim pain au chocolate (for anyone reading this from Jonquiere… LIKE THE SONG WE SANG IN CLASS!!) and ate those at the marina and watched the fishes fight over the crumbs. There is also a new cruise in town (ocean village) and they all have matching bicycles and helmets! Haha! And one more thing about marie ange the nice teacher: she met me on Monday after my class and we called mlle ceccarelli (aka the rectorate lady who is really important but impossible to get in touch with) and then said she would call her the next day because I was working all day so I wouldn’t have time. And she did and then she called me at residence des iles and it was really nice of her to do! And and and mme. Benaya also said that we can meet on the vacation and she has some materials for me for classes so that is super nice too ANNNNNNNNNND the jedi knight phoned me last night because I had phoned her because all the other anglais have a stage in corte today but not me (!) and I didn’t know if I did or not but anyway she called back and was like how is everything how is residence des iles and everything remember if you need anything just come see me ok good night and bissous ciao! Aww nice – I’m not mad at her anymore she’s nice again.
Ok that’s all my stories. This turned into a monster post! Phew! Hopefully I get it all done. I also have to book my flights at Christmas from Bologna to Valencia (!) to London (!!) to Marseille (!!!) and then ferry and train back to ajaccio! Phew that’s going to be a lot of jumping around!
Oh here is me yesterday eating lunch like a true Corsican: brie cheese (for 1 euro 20) bagette for 75 cents and MENTHE A L’EAU!!! (aka mint syrop in water) which I love!!!!
p.s. i couldn't get all the photos up but there are lots here anyway! xx
