Book Haul!

Salut!!

As I mentioned previously, I have a skill in procrastination, which usually reveals itself during assessment time. A week or so ago, I spent a good afternoon browsing Amazon for all the books I want to read, and I ended up buying a few, so I thought I'd just share them! I also have a couple of books on my 'to-read' list that I've had for a while, and one was a gift from a friend.

1. The Book of Tomorrow - Cecelia Ahern

This was a gift from a friend, that I have just never got around to reading, but I'm always desperate to have time to start it. Having read P.S. I Love You and The Gift by Cecelia Ahern, I really enjoy her books and I can't wait to get my teeth sunk into this!

2. 1000 Years of Annoying the French - Stephen Clarke

Being a French student, I have read a couple of extracts of Stephen Clarke's work, and I found them highly amusing. From what I've read about this book, it seems to be all about the love-hate relationship between the French and the British. 

3. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

This book is everywhere!! All of my friends seem to have read this and I want to be in on it, so I will be taking a huge leap onto the bandwagon to see what all the fuss is about.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

This is a CLASSIC!! I read this book in school as part of my GCSE English course, and I loved it. I need to read it again because it is absolutely brilliant, but I have not owned a copy of the book until now. 

5. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

This has recently been released as a film. I haven't watched the film yet, as I was completely frustrated that I recognised the title from a few years ago. I can't remember whether I read the book, or never got round to reading it/ ordering it, but I couldn't bring myself to watching the film without reading a book that I had known about for so long. I'm sure I'll watch the film once I've had a good read of the book.

6. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

This was released as a film a few years ago but I never even realised it was based on a book! I'm really looking forward to giving this a read too, but if it is anything like the film, it will be quite hard going in parts!

 

I hope I can get all of my uni work out of the way ASAP so I can get reading!

See you soon 

xx

British Council Assistantship

Salut mes chéris!

As I mentioned in my last post, I will be moving to France in September to become a Language Assistant for little French children, or not so little French teenagers, and I just wanted to explain the things I have done so far because up until now I have searched every documented piece of information about the year abroad to find out EVERYTHING, which has been made easier by the likes of Third Year Abroad, but one more blog post may contain the information that YOU want to know. 

*Imagine drifty windchime-esq flashback music HERE*

Around October time I created an account with the British Council and I had to fill in the application forms and hand them in at university by the end of November. The forms asked the obvious, such as Why would you be good as a Language Assistant? To the not-so-obvious How have you adapted to different cultures before? (What do I say to this?!)
Then followed the complete basics, i.e. Level of French, Name, D.O.B, bla bla bla.
THEN I had to pick three places where I wanted to live. This was hard. Firstly, it seemed that everyone knew that you picked 3 places, but at no point had anyone mentioned that these places were categorised. 

• In Group A there were a number of départements from the North of France. 
• In Group B there were places from around the centre of France.
• Group C contained the popular places, darn sarfff (South of France), Paris, and the DOMs.

From these groups, I had to pick one place from A, one from B and the third from ANY of the groups.
After this I had to decide the size of the place I wanted to move to, (city, small town or rural) and the age group that I wanted to teach.

I found it so hard to make any decisions, not only because one department seemed like the size of Wales, but I just had no idea where I wanted to go. So, after many nights on google images, searching for the prettiest places, I decided upon Rennes, Poitiers and Amiens (in that order). I also stated my preference to be a city, so that it's easy for people to visit, and I chose the age group 11-14. I did this because I want to teach in Secondary School eventually and I thought that this would be perfect experience. 

By December time I received an email saying that my application had been received, and by April I should know if I have been accepted. Right now it's a waiting game, but as soon as I know, I will pass on the news!

Goodbye for now

xx

Exam Stress!

Salut!!

I once read that to be a successful blogger, you must prepare at least your first five blog posts, you should always carry around a note pad to fill up with ideas for amazing blogs, and you should be a generally interesting person. AND POST REGULARLY!

So after not managing to tick off any of the checklist, I shall begin again. A lot has happened since my first, absolutely awful and cringe-worthy first post, both good and bad. But I will start with now...

I am in my second year of uni studying French, which means I am currently in the middle of exam/essay/assessment season, and it's horrible. I have a million and one things to revise and even more essays to write and it's safe to say that I cannot cope! Yet again it is the time of year where I become Procrastinator Extraodinaire and in equal measure I am a nervous wreck. Honestly, I just jumped at the doorbell just in case it was the revision police checking to see I had done adequate revision. (No I haven't). When I am not hiding from the horrors that reside the other side of the door, I am rushed off my feet (procrastinating) doing the most important things:

• Teaching Ted and Betsy, my gorgeous, fluffy, new bunnies how to stand on their back legs, or run through tubes, or spin around. Important of course!
• Staring game with the TV, which is turned off. Manage a good half an hour sometimes!
• Ordering all the books off Amazon that I have NO TIME to read.
• Dipping in and out of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (another book I have no time to read.
• Watching endless YouTube videos of hair and make up tutorials, daily vlogs and nail art videos, just because I can.
• And finally, the one you have all been waiting for...getting around to writing my first proper blog post.

Anyhoo, after completing these next few months of hell, I start a TEFL course for my final 7 weeks of uni, which will hopefully be half decent, as from September I will be moving to France (assuming that my application is successful) to become an Assistante de Langue. I am absolutely terrified! But I am hoping to document my year, and the lead up to this in this blog, so keep your eyes peeled! 

I think I'll leave this post here as it is rather more substantial than the first one!

So until next time

xx