So it's been one month since I arrived here in Oyonnax, and I thought it would be a perfect time to write another update filling you in on what I've been up to over the past week.
Since coming here I have made the decision to become very cultured. Partly because that is one of the only things you can do here in Oyonnax but also because I figure it's a good way to immerse myself into the French way of life. So each week in Oyonnax there is a little guide called 'Sortir!' that shows the cinema listings and also information about the week's cultural events, and my aim is to do something from this guide every week - and so far I've been doing okay!
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| my collection of 'Sortir!' so far |
My first choice from 'Sortir!' was a concert in the Cultural Centre (what better place to start my cultural adventure) last Friday night by 'Théodore, Paul & Gabriel', described on Wikipedia as "un groupe pop rock folk de Paris".
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| Théodore, Paul & Gabriel |
I like pop and I like rock and I don't mind listening to folk - but the genre 'pop rock folk' was something completely new and very French. Ironically, in a little interview in the programme, the group compare French rock to English wine - saying that they aim to revitalise and bring back French rock- yet all of their songs are in English, almost a must for any group that want to be succesful around Europe and overseas. However, regardless of the language, these girls are really talented - they played a brilliant set to a lively full house and I had a really great evening and perhaps an easy introduction to my new French cultured life. 'Silent Veil' is one a good one to listen to if you also want to experience some 'French pop rock folk', and here is a little video of them covering 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' http://instagram.com/p/fV9Td5P1G2/#
Last weekend I also attempted to make a cheesecake which went surprisingly well given the lack of ingredients and cooking equipment. Four of us had planned a meal together and I offered to make a lemon cheescake (one of the best desserts you can make without an oven) to follow Shana's amazing chicken curry. My first obstacle was no Philadelphia or any other cream cheese in the supermarket (I bought mascarpone instead) and then the actual preparation of the cheesecake involved a lot of improvisation - such as a wine bottle replacing a rolling pin, a tiny fork replacing a whisk and my saucepan replacing any sort of mixing bowl which meant that my cheesecake was speckled with what looked like fresh vanilla seeds but was actually little bits of the non-stick coating that had been scraped of with my fork. However, all in all it was a success and here is another little instagram video of me making the cheesecake http://instagram.com/p/fXjLzxv1CW/#
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| lemon cheesecake ingredients: cream, mascarpone, lemons, biscuits, butter, honey |
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| my ingenious buscuit crushing method |
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| a half eaten cheesecake |
On Sunday a few of us from the residence went along to the Fête Foraine (basically a funfair) that had been hiding behind the Cultural Centre all week. Unfortunately when we arrived it was completely dead - the few rides that were there were being taking taken down and the whole place looked like the set of an abandoned theme park in a horror movie, so we took a few photos and left. After my dreams of some dodgems and a crêpe were crushed, we went in search of a restaurant, only to soon realise that this wasn't going to be easy on a sunday night in Oyonnax. We eventually found what seemed to be the only place open and as I looked at the menu my eyes lit up and it felt like luck had finally come my way. This restaurant was a cous cous restaurant. Yes. Everything was cous cous. And I love cous cous. Anyway, the waiter was a little odd but the food was delicious - a big bowl of cous cous for everyone to share along with a vegetable soup and some spicy sausages.
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| the empty fête foraine |
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| shana, me, marlowe and betlem |
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| marlowe, betlem and the cous cous |
I'm still only working 8 hours a week and so my working week started with no work, but instead I spent Monday preparing for my classes (I have a lot of respect for teachers right now, knowing how much effort is put into each lesson for it to often be torn apart by at least one group of uninterested students) and I also had a interview for the school newspaper! A small group of students from one of my best classes had asked if they could write an article about me and it was really nice to see how much effort they had put into the questions (they held the whole interview in English to then be translated into French) - and I'm sure I'll put a photo up when the article is published. In fact today I have just had my second interview, this time for the regional newspaper 'Voix de l'Ain', as one of the English teachers at my school writes a weekly column about differences between the culture here and around the world. Two newspaper interviews in one month isn't bad.
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| in all my classes this week we played a halloween game (it seems early i know but schools have just broken up for a two week half term) where i would give each team a word which they had to use to create a sentence - here is my favourite sentence by far |
The
highlight of my week was probably my day trip to Lyon on Wednesday. My trip was
nearly ruined before it had even started thanks to some very stereotypical
French train strikes, but after a replacement bus service and a 2 hour train
journey where no one was quite sure if the train was really going to take us to
Lyon or not, I made it! My phone also decided not to properly charge itself the
night before so unfortunately I don't have any photos (the ones below are from
the internet) - but I met up with some other English assistants and had a great
day of speaking English (it had been a while), eating an amazing three course
lunch and visiting some more Lyon tourist hotspots.
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| basilica of notre-dame de fourvière |
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| the inside was one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen - and it had a crypt just below and just as incredible |
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| the ancient theatre of fourvière |
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| the acoustics on stage were amazing - clever romans |
My week ended with two more cultural activities taken from 'Sortir!'. The first was on Thursday night as I went back to the Cultural Centre with Sophia, the German assistant in Oyonnax, to watch the film 'La Vie d'Adèle'.
The film has had a lot of media coverage, having won the Palme d'Or this year at Cannes and due to it's extremely graphic sex scenes. In brief I thought the film was an amazing piece of cinema and deserves all of the recognition it is getting. It is three hours long, but not once did I look at my watch or notice the time, which for me is a sign of a great film. As for the sex scenes - yes they were graphic, verging on pornographic, but they work as part of the film on a whole and also with what the director was trying to achieve. Never have I felt so involved in such an intense relationship on screen. For me, the only problem with the sex scenes was that they were so long and so graphic that I found it hard to watch them without thinking of the two actresses and how hard these scenes must have been to film, something that has also been talked a lot about in the press.
My final cultural adventure of the week was a late Friday night trip to the 'Finale Coupe de France des Rallyes'.
At around 9pm we drove about 10 minutes out of Oyonnax up some mountain roads to a pitch black forest full of cars and caravans and people stumbling around with torches. As we walked towards the sound of rally cars everyone else was walking away telling us it had finished, but we did still manage to watch the last hour or so. We scrambled up the side of the road into the trees to get a view over the sharp corner in front of us. The atmosphere was great and it was exciting watching all of the cars try and make the corner - and when some of them didn't the crowd got pretty rowdy.
The next two weeks are looking pretty exciting for me as schools are on half-term and I'm putting my cultural adventures in Oyonnax on hold as I travel to Paris and Granada! However, before I leave I'm doing three days of extra holiday work which means I have spent my weekend preparing 9 hours worth of teaching material... tomorrow's three hour lesson (yes - three hours straight each day with the same 10 students) starts with this great article which pretty much blows the age old French stereotype out of the water http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/15/wiltshire-dig-frogs-legs-eaten-british-before-french
