Mercredi 27eme juillet

Well this morning england waved goodbye to the rest of the Clarke family. Dad, Mum and the two boys left today for Ukraine. They (plus a few others from my church) are going on a two week mission with Global Action.

They are all going to be working in a christian kids camp. Should be interesting as they don't speak russian (which is what the kids speak). Mum did russian for... O levels or something but claims that all she can now remember is the work for hedgehog (a useful word if ever there was one!). But I know they will have a fab time even so.
As for me- I have very little of interest to say except that I have some more work!!! I have been lacking a bit recently and have been quite bored.

second entry

I ache all over!!! Yesterday afternoon a group of us went of a.. hehem... 'walk'. Now when Armelle said "do you want to go on a walk this afternoon" I thought great a sunday afternoon stoll through the contryside. Oh how wrong was I!!

The guy that suggested the 'walk' does a lot of climbing and trecking, and the route he chose for yesterday? Straight down the edge of a cliff.
I'm quite sure that in england routes like that would have been banned for being too dangerous (or maybe I just hope they would be). I don't remember the last time I was that scared.

The trail was normally only about a foot wide, with only a few extra inches before it was a sheer drop. And as it snaked its way down the cliff side, we had to navigate some lovely steep slopes.

The slopes ended up being alot harder and scarier than the places right on the edge. The main reason was that my legs were shaking so much I had a fair bit of difficulty in keeping my footing!

However I am not one to let something beat me so I made it all the way down and even managed to hike back up to the top to where we had left the cars.

Bizarrely by the time it came to sitting in the car to go home I was all up for going on another walk (mentally at least, physically I was exausted).

So I went home had a lovely hot shower (oh how I miss having a bath) and went to bed. Waking up this morning though all my muscles are soooo sore- I didn't even know that I had used half of then!! Lol

Lundi 25eme juillet

I ment to put up a post about this on friday (but I kinda forgot).

Firday morning I managed to see how useful it can be to have trams that can leave their tracks behind them. I was only my way to work when the tram engin cut out and all the lights went off!!

Most of the time it is great having trams with electricly powered doors- but not when they loose power! The trams all have on board power supplies so the driver could let us all off.

So I walked the rest of the way in and watched the tram struggling up the road and finally turn off the track and trundle off down the road, letting the next tram past.

Mercredi 20eme juillet

How embarrasing is it when your stomach won't shut up!?!?

I was sitting in my office after lunch today and my stomach keep making, what I can only assume were "Thanks for the grub" noises. I was sitting there wondering if Alan (the guy that shares my office) could hear it. It was so loud I imagaine the answer is yes! :S

Well yesterday was fun. In the evening there was a bible study and prayer meeting at the church. I followed a good bit of what the guy was talking about, which is always nice. After that the youth had a bit of a meeting about the choir. They were deciding on organisational things and the like. And bizzarely I followed most of that as well. It was a good day for French really.

When I got back to the foyer I handed in the itinery for my new room (after checking the definition of a couple of items). I also handed in my RIB (that's a piece of paper with all my bank details on) to get my housing benifit. Bridgette then comented on how much my french has improved since I arrived. I guess I haven't noticed it as much because it has been gradual for me but I have learnt so much. Unfortunately there is still LOADS to learn, oh well I've still got 10 1/2 months to get it under my belt. hee hee.

Oh and an especially good thing is that I've been given some useful work to do. It is all very well reading the documentation for the project to make sure you know what is going on. But until you know what you are going to be doing with the information it is quite tricky (and rather dull). So I'm happier at work now.

second post

I was just re-reading an e-mail from a friend (Terri) and thought that you guys might like to see it (and I'm not a fan of mass mailing without a good cause). Wasn't sure where to put it, so I put it here. Might have to make a page for funny stories.

According to a news report, a certain private school in USA was recently faced with a unique problem.

A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their ipstick they would press their lips To the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night the Maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back.

Several memos were posted about this, without effect. Finally the Principal decided that something had to be done. She called all he girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls just how hard it was. Under careful instructions, the man took out a long-handled squeegee, solemnly dipped it in the nearest toilet bowl, and scrubbed at the mirror.

There was complete silence in the room.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.



There are Teachers . and then .. ....there are Educators

Lundi 18eme juillet

I was just reading a bit on the BBC news website about the law to ban incitement to religious hatred. I totally agree that peopel should try not to upset everyone with what they say but to try and make it a law? How far are they planning to go with this? hmmm I think this could end up being a very silly idea.

But anyway on with telling you all about my weekend.

Saturday I went out and bought myself a copy of HP6 (in english of course) and went and sat out in the sun and read to my hearts content. I took a small break in the middle to go and see Charlie and the chocolate factory. There are two cinema's in Caen that shown films in the original language (VO) rather than a version dubbed in french (Vfr). It is a good film- me did enjoy v much. After the film I went back home to finish the book. I did manage to stay up to about 1 to do it, but for those of you that have read it and know what happens you should be able to understand that I couldn't exactly stop ready now could I?

Sunday was church again and after I went round to my friend armelle's house for some lunch. Then we wandered back to church for choir practice. They have got me teaching them amazing grace, which is quite fun really. I also got to learn some of their french songs :)

Venredi 15eme juillet

July 14th is Bastille day in france and is a national holiday. So I took full advantage of this by not setting any alarms and staying in bed until about mid day!!

However with it being such an amazingly gorgeous day outside I couldn't stay in. So I wandered out into the sun. In the centre of Caen there is an old castle so I went to go and have a look around it. I was surprised to find that it was free entry (I hadn't been before now because I assumed it was paid entry and I was a bit low on cash) but once inside I discovered that the walls is really all that is left. But I had fun wandering along the ramparts and taking photos of Caen from up there (until my camera batteries ran out that is).

In the afternoon I weent round to Armelle's house (one of my new friends from church) she lives in a flat with 4 other guys from church. We had fun chatting and talking about the church choir (which I then went and managed to join!). Then at about 22:30 we drove off to a nearby town to go and watch some fireworks :)

Today at work has been dead! there are a grand total of 5 of us in the entire of our department (when there are normally over 25) everyone took the day off so they got a 4 day weekend. Unfortunately when you only have 10 days a year like me you can't afford to waste them. But actually today has been quite nice. Three of us went to lunch together and both the other two spoke english for me so we all chatted. It made a nice change. And we went and had our after lunch coffee (well tea for me) sitting outside in the sun. All very nice and civilised. The only draw back of no-one being here is that it is about 50 times harder to concentrate on work- distractions that normally wouldn't be a problem are much easier to fall for- like getting lost singing along to your music!!! LOL. Don't worry though I have still been doing my work in between my singing.

Speaking of singing it is the choir practice before youth group today. Should be fun, if a little interesting seeing as they sing in french.

Mercredi 13eme juillet

Just thought I would mention the ICE campain (In Case of Emergencies). The idea is that you store the word " I C E " in your mobile phone Address book (I guess if you normally carry an address book the same thing could be done with that), and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency".

In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's so simple that everyone can do it. Please do.

For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.

I've been getting quite a few e-mail about this and I imagaine that many of you have as well. Weither you have heard before or if this is the first you have heard of it please spread the word. I think this is a fab idea- and so simple.

Mardi 12eme juillet

Today my new found ability to eat whatever was in front of me failed completely. Normally at the canteen there is a really long queue and I can work out what most things might be by watching other people getting their food. Today however there was no queue. So I ordered this thick sausagy thing and chips (great thing about canteens- point at what you want and you don't have to speak a word!). When I sat down my colleagues looked amused and asked if I knew what this thing was. As you can guess alarm bells started ringing at that point- what was in it that made my choice so amusing? I cut it open and decided that I didn't care what was in it, there was no way I was going to eat it! The smell was something else. I decided to stick with the chips and quickly covered this 'thing' with my napkin once I had finished. That didn't help much with the smell but oh well. I didn't have the guts to ask what was in it- I think I would have regretted it.

Lundi 11eme juillet

WOW what a weekend!

Friday evening I spoke to my mum and found out that my little brother had been in London on a school field trip when the bombs went off on Thursday. All the kids were fine (and a good way from any trouble) but they had to walk a good bit of the way home! It was weird because even though I knew he was safe, knowing that he had been much closer than I had thought really shook me up. As I mentioned in an earlier entry Friday is when the church youth meet. I'd told them that I was gonna go so at 7:30 I dutifully traipsed out towards the church. Even though I really didn't feel in the mood to go and talk french (it takes quite alot of effort).

It was the best thing I could have done. It was quite hard to start with as the first song they sang was "Shine Jesus Shine" (but in french). Looking down the "credits" bit where they tell you about who wrote it I saw CROYDON. Graeham Kendrick who wrote the song lives in Croydon (where I live) and I went to school with his kids at St Andrews, and that is where my little brother still goes. So I had all these reminders of everything back home and I had to try incredibly hard not to burst into tears. However the evening got much better much quicker. Everyone was so friendly and really welcoming. It was quite funny because they all wanted to show that they knew some english, so conversations were dotted with odd phrases that were obviously meant to be english (I found that if you smile an nod even if you don't have a clue what they said, it keeps them happy). It was the first time since arriving that I have been able to laugh at jokes that I understood (in french), and just generally have a good time. They were all very willing to speak nice and slowly for me and make sure I understood them. There was one american guy there. I think he is from the Caribbean. Well the main point is that he was fluent in both english and french. I was chatting to him for ages and as people came and went the conversation slipped between english and french.

Saturday was my moving day. I moved all of my stuff from roon 220 into room 209. It was obvious that this new room was one that had already been painted (I was moving so that they could paint my old room) as the smell was almost overwelming. However I still don't think that the painted room looked much different from the un-painted one. The major difference with this room is that it is backwards!!! Those of you who have seen the houses in Stag Hill (at uni) will know how bizare it is to go into a house that is identical to the one that you know but just the opposite way round. You just don't quite know what to do because it is similar enough that your brain still uses you old routine- and you turn the wrong way to put things away and silly things like that.

For any who are wondering my address is exactly the same as it was- just now it is Chambre 209 (NOT 220)

On Saturday evening there was a gospel concert in a local town. I managed to get a lift with some of the youth I had met on Friday. We drove down to Houlgat and then spent the 3/4 hour before the concert, wandering along the beach!!! I managed to resist the urge to sing "Oh I do like to be beside the sea side" Though no doubt I would have ended up teaching it to my companions. I have decided that the french have a rather different sense of humor to the british (they find the oddest things funny!) but even so it was a really nice stole along the sand.

Come 8 o'clock it was time for the concert. We went a joined a big group from Caen church in the seating around the Houlgat bandstand. The choir was the "New Gospel Family" a Parisian choir, and they were really good. I love gospel concerts, they are so much fun. It's not the kind of music I would normally listen to but at live events gospel has an incredible energy. They are also great for audience participation. They had us singing and dancing along with them. It's also great to see people really enjoying worshiping God. Most of the songs were in english, which was great for me, but they also had some french songs. After the concert I was absolutely knackered!!

Sunday was church once more and this time I wasn't sitting by myself, and I had people to talk to after the service. Another bonus was that I understood a good part of the sermon this week!

So all in all this has easily been the best weekend yet.

Vendredi 8em juillet

Rahah St John are doing first aid at the olympics. This was taken from the sja site this morning:



hee hee.

Saw the stranges this earlier (OK well maybe it wasn't the strangest, but it was certainly bizarre). Just as we were going to lunch I looked out the window and saw a tram driving down the street, not running on any rails and not connected to any overhead power lines! (V sorry if you don't think this is quite a strange as I did but I just had to tell you guys). This road is just the other side of the site boundry fence right outside our window. However the tram lines (on which you would normal expect to find a tram) are the other side of a large car park. You see the secret is that the trams in Caen are kinda only half tram. Most of the time they run on a single rail drawing their power from their overhead power lines. But when say they need to turn off the power to a section of track for maintainance purposes, or in the even of a power cut, they have back up power on board. The can run on their own. I had known this fact since my first week, but even so it really took a while for me to work out how on earth this tram had come to be sitting in the middle of the road!

Second entry

I've always said that I hated London and couldn't wait to move away. But in the past couple of days I have realsied how much I love that city. I was really proud of London yesterday when I learned that we got the Olympics. I didn't think that I would care but listening to the news, waiting for the announcement I had butterflies in my stomach thinking about how great it would be if we got it. And then today I had another sharp reminder of how much London means to me. The bomb blasts on the underground and on the bus has shocked the world. but looking at the pictures and listening to the radio going through my head were the same thoughts over and over: "Was anyone I know hurt?" "What would have happened to our 2012 bid if this had happened yesterday?" "I wish I could help". Looking at the photos I kept seeing places that I knew. Kingscross I have been to many times and several of the others I have been to as well. London is my city, it is my home and now I realise just how much I care about it and it's people.

Jeudi 7eme juillet

Yesterday was so much fun (and I really mean that- no sarcasm). Firstly I had some fun work to do. I was producing a flow chart of a piece of code- it was all pretty with lots of different colours!!! But the really nice thing was that once I had finished and it had been passed on to the people who needed it, I got to help them. I managed to provide them with information they didn't already know. It was a good feeling.

The second wonderful thing was the anouncement of the 2012 olympic games venue. I managed to start and maintain a conversation with a colleague about how Paris was down as being the favorite and how she would like it to be in France, at lunch time. Then at 13:45 (the french always work in 24 hour clock- it is very annoying!!) french time I tuned into to BBC news-via the web. As soon as the anouncement was made I told Nathalie. I got to talk to other people in the office as well because they all came to moan to each other and congratulate me (as if I did anything!). But it was really nice to feel part of the group.

Afterward I was taking to Emily (from St John) on MSN (yes I occasionally use webmessenger in the office) and we were wondering if St John would be asked to provide some first aid cover for the olympics. It would be so much fun if they did. We could go and watch fun stuff. Dunno if they would though. Oh well I can hope.

Mercredi 6eme juillet

Here at work they have a central PA system with speakers running in all the office corridors. Unfortunately when they started talking this morning I had no idea what was being said. I got slightly nervous when they started sounding what sounded very much like a 'get out the building' alarm. However none of my colleagues looked at all fazed so I stayed put. Thankfully Nathalie (who is my mentor here) decided to tell me what was going on. Apparently on the first Wednesday of each month they run a test of the alarm system! I was very glad it wasn’t as loud and harsh as the university one as it continued for about 5 minutes!

Lundi 4 juillet

Yesterday I went to church again. And this time I managed to sing along to one of the songs with no problems- admitadly I was singing the english words while everyone else was singing them in french, but that's a minor detail. LOL. After the service this young lad (I say lad but he was my age ish) can up to me and stated chatting to me. Once I had explained that I hadn't got a clue what he was saying he promply
switched to english. He was so nice to me. WE talked for a while about what I was doing in france, how long I have been here etc. He also invited me to their youth group. They meet 8pm on a friday in the church. Several of the other youth came over and spoke to me as well. All of them wanted me to go of Friday and one girl invited me to a bring and share lunch she is having at her house on saturday. Most of
them speak a little english (though they all seem to speak more english than I do french). The only name I can remember is Bienvenu and yes his name really was Welcome. but hopefully I'll get to know these guys and have some new friends.

Vendredi 1ere juillet

As you can see I have been brushing up on my french vocab. I have found this lovely little program (downloadable free from the net) called before you know it. It uses a computer based flash card method for learning vocab. I don't know how good it will be for helping me speak, but it will be good at helping me remember a few more words. It was great fun trying it out last night. I was siting in my room repeating all the words out loud and doing actions to help me remember (those of you who have
seen me flapping about when I can't remember a word, will know how silly I looked).

I've started getting into work half an hour earlier (or leaving slightly later depending on the day) so that I can use the internet here with out feeling too guilty that I should be working. Being early also means that I can repeat all the words with no-one around, always a bonus.

I've been listening to some french radio here. Half of it is english songs and even some of the french songs are not bad, hee hee. I have though heard this one song that makes me very sad. It is a version of flash dance- a fab song. but they havve murdered it! I dunno if it is a french thing of if you have heard it in england as well, but... grrr. I do think there are some clasic songs that should never be re-done, or changed in anyway- and this is one of them. lol.