Ceci ne fera pas un bon photo

Had this song in my head all day. Such a good song though!

My longest day at school was today - and was surprisingly easy! Started the day with the sixième International Section class (INTER), who are absolutely adorable. Felt more like a teacher teacher all today as well! I was telling them about school in England...they of course were completely shocked that everyone wears uniform, and thought originally that every single school in England has the same uniform. Ended up explaining the different uniforms like a gang-war, and the reason behind the uniform was so you knew which two schools were having a fight! Well, partly true really. They then asked me loads of questions about England, including did I know The Beatles and what was the Queen for (my answer being lots of parades and fun...didn't think I was too far off the mark!). They of course then decided they wanted a Queen, and started to ask why France didn't. After a quick gloss over the beheading of their Royal Family we moved on to the safer pastures of what there is to do in Liverpool. I love this class!

The next class was the elder troisième INTER, who are very cheeky but really really entertaining with it. One of them was originally from Islamabad and so we had a really informative discussion about Pakistan in which he presented a bit about his home country. For one I didn't know that hockey is the national sport, or that it is known as 'The Land of the Pure'. You learn something new every day! Also now understand the concept of cricket (ish!) and what scores points - learning streak right here...

The rest of the day was spent with the "normal", larger classes. This started with the sixième, who are SO LOUD! Although rather polite (nearly every single one of them thanked me, in English, for giving them their test paper), they are also unfortunately easily distracted and very talkative. Even during the test they kept asking too many questions for my liking! The trick of the day was to break their pens so they got ink on their hands so they had to go and wash them. Typical of their age I guess, but they are apparently one of the worst classes in the school. Unfortunately you really can tell.

The next job was to take and mark oral exams for two hours. First with the quatrième ('Internet is a fantastic invention, do you agree or disagree?') and then troisième (Same sketch as yesterday). Some of them were excruciatingly embarrassing, both for them and for me. Some had definitely not prepared, and even when I helped with hinted at the answer in French they couldn't add anything more to their arguments. However, some were a revelation and an absolute pleasure to spend time with, so I guess you win some you lose some! My only real problem is that I don't like giving low marks, because I remember how awful it is when everyone seems to have high marks and you don't, so I think I was more lenient than the normal teachers...

Words I have learnt today:-
- J'ai hâte de... - I cannot wait to...
- Ruse - trick
- Carte - map
- Persil - parsley
- Estragon - tarragon
- Basilic - basil

Personal triumph of the day: managed to finally navigate Caen a bit more (finding this gem on the way), and made my way to FNAC and I now have an aerial cable so can finally watch French television (well, once I work out how to plug everything in, watch this space!)