Beaune.

Marc's right when he says that I forget that I have a blog half the time. I was spending the morning blissfully browsing the net and looking at people's blogs when I realised that I, in turn, had things to blog about and that I did, in fact, have a blog. Given that I have the entire day off today having already finished my only class for the day (and it's only 11 AM), I don't work tomorrow and it's the weekend later, I decided that I do have enough time to blog.

The keyboard takes time to adjust to, so if any wise ass decides to scrutinise my blog for errors, get a life and bug someone else. What hurts is the fact that now that I'm finally OK with using the AZERTY format, I have to go back home and get used to the QWERTY format all over again. It's these little things that are going to annoy me when I get back, getting used to riding on the left again. Irritating.

I decided today to blog about (no guesses), life here. Everybody knows that I'm here as an English language assistant (Prashanth actually asked me if I'd come here to teach French, now wouldn't THAT be interesting?!) at a school. Now I know that that's about all they know about it. I'm here at a lycée (high school) called Lycée Etienne Jules Marey - Greta teaching students from the age of 16 to 20 (yes, 20). I’ve got classes where half the students are older than I am. Not good.

Having just turned 20 I figured it’d be easy to teach adolescents and that my classes wouldn’t be long boring sessions but would instead be more of conversation classes. I was right. The students are eager to please, make me laugh and are even fun to talk to. But, yes, here comes the ’but’, they suck at English. They tell me that they’ve been learning English for the past 3 years and when a student takes 2 whole minutes to churn out a statement that sounds like " ’E, ummmmm…’as gone to ze, ummmm..'ah merde, c’est pas ça’, ze..umm..librareee..", all I can say is that they must have had horrible teachers. It took a grand total of 2 hours to realise that they need help! They’re eager to learn, which I suppose is a good thing. I’m glad that they don’t see me as a teacher, but more of a friend. It makes it easier to communicate. When a student comes up to me after a class to say that she’s happy in my class and doesn’t feel scared to talk to me, I finally understand why people choose to be teachers. Trust me, this isn’t a profession I’d recommend to anyone, I never wanted to teach in the first place, but it does have it’s perks. What’s better is the fact that I have an open invitation at any time to go along with them to ’Operanite’ (which is the only attention-worthy discothèque here in Beaune. The 2 other language assistants (Stefanie for German and Karla for Spanish) are 22 and 24 respectively and the students secretly confessed that they find them way too old =).

Beaune. Very beautiful, picturesque and typically bourgoise. Ideal for a 2 week holiday, a big no-no if you’re going to live here, especially if you’re under 25. There’s nothing, no seriously, NOTHING that you could do here for more than a month that would classify as ’interesting’. There are a couple of decent discos, a really good cinema hall, wonderful places to walk around, nice cafés, but that’s about it. Dijon is the place to be, if you want to party. Which I suppose is a good thing if you’re new in the country and need a big break. Beaune, in very Goldilocks style, is not too big, not too small, but just the right size. The people are friendly, but there are only so many times that you can listen to the origin of wine and the different types of wine there are. The teachers are eager to help us ’have fun’, but I sincerely doubt if I’m having FUN at all the churches early on a Sunday morning. It’s the thought that counts, I guess.

Living alone. Not easy. Point. I spent the first 2 weeks living like a slob, refusing diligently to clean up my room, eat the right things and feasting on chocolate, for the sole reason, that I finally could. Once I got that out of my system, I’ve become oh-so-propah and though none of my friends will believe me I have turned into the type that cleans everyday and is tidy, despite all of amma’s dark predictions that I’d be living in a sty. HAHA, I CAN live alone. It’s tiring, exhausting, frustrating and scary (I spent the first 10 nights sleeping with the lights on), but I know that I can do it. I think this 7 month period is great because living away from home is something everybody must absolutely go through before they officially ’grow up’ and move out. I can cook, Ok, I’m not an ace chef (all I do for now is boil the rice and heat the veggies and the chicken, but hey, it’s a start. People who know me will concur), but I can survive. I’ve decided to move on from the daily bread and butter and cheese (LOT’s of cheese) to rice and spaghetti and lasagnes, pretty much things that take time to cook. The sad part is, even though I’m getting used to it and getting better too, I sincerely doubt if it’s something I’ll ever get to enjoy doing. Cooking is a chore I’d rather do without. Too bad.

Being a tourist. It’s the best thing in the world. I’ve visited about a zillion new places already and I’ve learnt a lot here. I can’t wait for the new set of holidays (December 22 to January 8) to roam around again.

The one thing about being away from home is that I’ve become really tolerant. People aren’t kidding when they say that a month away from home makes you older by a year. This is the only way to learn. I’ve never been much of a patient type but I can say that I’m improving. I don’t even get angry that easily (Sharmi, that IS true).

That’s about it for life here in Beaune. I can’t wait to come back but I don’t want to leave either.