A week of lasts

They say you never know what you have until it's gone, and that sentiment can definitely be applied to this past week for me. Not that it's all gone quite yet. But this week has definitely been the beginning of the end. I shall take you through it.

Sunday night was Mexican night. Alfredo hosted a fantastic soirée in which he was able to share his culture with us, which involved cooking us a typical chicken dish with CACTUS and chillis which tasted 20 times better than it sounds, playing Mexican picture bingo, drinking tequila, and playing musical chairs to Mexican music. It was such a great night and was the moment I realised how much I am going to miss my friends out here.

Clockwise from top left: Alfredo's present to each of us; group photo; Mexican bingo; the chicken and cactus dish

Thursday marked my last day of teaching at the lycée and it was actually sadder than I thought it would be. I had a class with my favourite 2 pupils (which may have something to do with the fact that they are basically my age and are really quite nice to look at) where we just played games, I got my interviews done for my YARP, I got a brilliant reference from my supervisor teachers, and they gave me a lovely little present and card to say thank you and goodbye. In hindsight it would have been nicer to work there more than only once a week, since I don't feel I really got a chance to have an impact on the pupils as they are in rotating class groups rather than set classes, so the most I saw the same pupils over the course of the year was probably only 4 times. Also, I've really enjoyed teaching there; the pupils are much more well-behaved than I was expecting, they're friendly, and it was fairly easy to get them to talk in class. So, good memories.

Leaving card and jewellery set from Sandrine and Manue

Anna and Maggie hosted the last party in Niort on Thursday night, which was a brilliant night with lots of food, lots of alcohol, lots of nationailities, lots of tears for some people, and lots of goodbyes. I have been waiting for the group photos to surface on facebook to put one on the blog, but they have yet to do so.

Alfredo and I went back to the lycée on Friday morning to watch a concert, in which 2 groups of pupils performed to the rest of the school after having spent the week working with professional musicians writing songs and in some cases learning more instruments. I was really impressed with what they'd managed to achieve in just 5 days, and it seemed like a great way for the pupils to end the term in high spirits.

Being treated to a guitar solo

And now summer has arrived it seems! After a week in which April Showers seemed to feature heavily in Melle, yesterday was the hottest day of the year here so far where it reached mid-20s. My day was made even better when I got a phone call from Rob as I was sitting in the sunshine to tell me that he'd just finished the Brighton marathon, making me a super-proud girlfriend. The good weather is meant to continue through the week, which is perfect for the arrival of my auntie Sara and Maurice in Melle tomorrow, so bring it on.

Summer lovin'

A la prochaine, je vous embrasse.

A certain cheeky little word

What do I have to do to get 18 year olds to enjoy English?! I've just done 2 hours of teaching for which I chose a theme that I thought would be of interest to them, hoping they would therefore be more enthusiastic than when I try to make them debate the pros and cons of bearing arms. The topic I decided on was British slang - showing them a video which explains different slang words, getting them to do a worksheet on the meanings of the words, and finally role playing a conversation amongst British teenagers, including these newly learnt terms. More blank faces. I even came to the conclusion that one of my pupils is perhaps deaf and mute, due to the lack of response I got from him, even when standing 5 inches away from him (seeing him out the window 30 seconds ago conversing normally with friends as he left the cantine has since disproved my suspicions). Surely a direct translation of 'the dog's bollocks' into French warrants a little smirk, no?

Anyway, I didn't come here to rant, I know it could be 20 times worse. The reason for today's spontaneous blog post was to try and figure out what exactly the word 'cheeky' means. I don't mean when it's used by adults reprimanding their insolent child by telling him 'Don't be cheeky'. I mean when youths of today put it in front of a noun to make it sound somewhat light-hearted and perhaps slightly rebellious. This was one of the words on my list of British slang for today's classes, and I literally couldn't explain it to my pupils, in English or in French.

I've since looked on Urban Dictionary (the best invention in the world, ever, even more so than sliced bread) but all the entries there haven't quite hit the nail on the head in capturing its meaning and usage.

Off the top of my head, here are some cheeky sentences to demonstrate what usage I am referring to:

"I'm just popping to the pub for a cheeky pint"

"Couldn't resist another cheeky photo of the cathedral"

"I live in a cheeky little town called Melle"

"Fancy hitting Oxford Street for a cheeky bit of retail therapy?"

I suppose, in reflection, 'cheeky' is mostly used when you're doing something a teeny weeny bit rebellious, or used when in fact you should be doing something else. But as my third example demonstrates, the word really can be used anywhere - there simply is nothing naughty about an innocent little historic town in the French countryside.

I guess it's just one of those words in the English language that has become totally overused and has therefore lost its meaning. I'm not having a go at its overuse, I quite like the word, and would even go so far as to say I use it myself from time to time, but it just caught my attention when I was teaching today, and had to admit to the class 'In fact, I'm unable to explain what it means'.

Right, I'm off to have a cheeky French yoghurt now. Bye! :P