French school
I have restarted the French lessons, my 4th month at Alliance Française now on the A2n3 level, which means I will take the A2 exam next week to see if I can move up to the B1 classes for the next 3 months. Even though I am a bit tired of learning french grammar, which I assure you isn't easy (even though similar to Portuguese grammar), a good thing about going back "to school" each month, is the opportunity to meet new classmates.
Even though I have been sharing my class with a core group of students of around 6, each month we get another 8-10 new students. This really makes shakes up the class as we get to know them and the dynamic of the class naturally changes too. This month's class has really great personalities and the level of French of the class is also quite good.
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| Picnic at the Parc de la Tête D'Or with the very cool February class! |
The majority of the classmates I've met usually only stay in the school or France/Lyon for a month or two maximum, which is sad as some I really wanted to get to know better, some really do stay for a while or actually settle down in Lyon. It is the case with one of our classmates Jacqui, who moved to Lyon with her French husband to a very nice house and so very kindly invited us to her "Pendre la Crémaillère", which is the french word for housewarming party. As she is Philippine, she cooked us some delicious starters and mains from her country. We had a great time eating, drinking, talking and even dancing!
I have now started to look for jobs. I have registered on the national/local jobs centre, which some of my friends suggested me to do. This is similar to the "job centre" in England or "Centro de Desemprego" in Portugal, where you register to say you are unemployed and they try and find you a job depending what you are willing to do and on your skills.
http://www.pole-emploi.fr/accueil/
I have applied for a few, maybe 10, jobs related to what I have been doing in the UK, but with no success. I believe this is due to my CV and cover letters in French not being yet written to the standard I need them to be, and also the fact that it is probably obvious to the employer that French is not my first language, and usually these types of jobs, even though they all require good spoken/written English, they are for people who speak/write fluent French, something I am far from doing...
I might have to change my job priorities fairly quickly and go for bar/cafes/store jobs where the level of French doesn't have to be as high as some of those office jobs. Let's see how this goes in the next few weeks!
Social life
As my money is running out, I am not going out drinking and eating as much as I was for the first 3 months. I have been quiet on that front, which is a shame because I keep meeting new people and I would love to keep my social life as active as before, but can't afford it, so I have started to say No a lot, which pretty much never happened before. However, I have been fortunate to have been to some free events which were really great.
- I went to a free Saxophone and Piano concert at the Opera National de Lyon to watch Emile Parisien (Saxophone) and Roberto Negro (Piano) perform a few of their songs. It was a great show and something I had never seen before so, really enjoyed it and felt I should watch more of these types of music concerts.
- Then last week my cousin very kindly took me to watch "Carmen" by the Compañia Nacional de Danza de España at the Maison de la Danse. I really had a great experience watching this very famous opera being modernised into a modern dance story. I love dance and this really made me once again think about somehow get involved in dancing!
- I also went to a "Soirée International" at the KoToPo Bar in the city centre. This is a international language bar which organises and offers free language exchange get togethers most nights. I went to the international one, which was directed to French wanting to speak any desired language and international people wanting to learn French. I met maybe 6 people and talked with them for a couple of hours, which was really great.
Other nights include Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Chinese, Scandinavian, Catalan, Esperanto etc for people wanting to learn french in exchange of those languages whilst socialising and meeting new people.
This bar also has free concerts at least one night a week and has lots of board games and books for all of its members. For you to access the bar and the language exchange evenings, you just need to become an associate member, which is just €4 for the whole year, really a bargain for what they have to offer.
- Raclette and board game soiree at Pedro's
If you remember, Pedro was one of the hosts of the house party I wrote about a few months ago. A few weeks ago he invited me again to his house to join him and another couple to an evening of raclette and board games.
It was my first raclette ever and it was great. For those who don't know what this is, its an originally Swiss dish which has been widely adopted by France and usually involves an electric grill with small pans used to melt slices of raclette cheese. The cheese is then melted and mixed with the potatoes and charcuterie or just poured over the food on the plate. Pedro provided the cheese, charcuterie, potatoes and mushrooms (his original touch) and we had a great time at the table "racletting" and chatting before we then went to play some strategic board game, which I came last...per usual! Another great evening at Pedro's.
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| Red wine of course.. |
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| Delicious! |
Here is the website for those wanting to use this company for cheap bus trips around France and also to Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium and UK: http://fr.ouibus.com/fr
Random thoughts & what's next
What I have noticed lately, and I guess its normal after 4 months, is that I have created some routines and feel like I now am getting quite comfortable here.
Of course now I am getting more serious with trying to get a job, plus without much money to spend recklessly in drinks and food, so I am really picking wisely what I do or do not.
Running wise, as most of you know Diana and I managed to reach 3 years of running every day a few days ago,which we were very happy and proud to have achieved. Today was my day 1,111 in a row, which for someone like me that loves numbers is really cool :)
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| I finally had the pleasure of running with my number 1 blog fan, Mathieu! Mama mia! |
Next month I have 2 friends from Portugal visiting me for a couple of days, which will be awesome!
I hope they get to feel Lyon the way I feel.
Diana will also come to visit for two weeks in May...just 74 days until then...but who is counting right??!!
Before that, I am participating in a thing called "Printemps des Poets" with the theme "Afrique(s)"...it seems like a mixture between poetry, theatre and music.
I came across this flyer on Facebook, which mentioned all the language speakers still needed, including Portuguese, no experience needed, just curiosity in participating in an artistic intercultural adventure..so I was straight in! We will perform 2 nights in March, so let's hope I don't mess it up and get to meet some cool people in the process and learn something too!
