Day 2 Report

So today was my first official day at CIEL. Once again we drove to school, and once again it was a nice sunny day. This time it was clearer though, and I noticed that there was no white suspension bridge; in fact (oh dear I just wrote en fait instead of "in fact"...) it was the same bridge I'd stood under just yesterday.

Anyway, I was early and was shivering in the courtyard waiting for Denise when BJ, who is one of the other three girls starting school today, came up to me.

Later the five of us sat in the reception area for some time before someone told us that we would be in "two or three" different classes. The previous batch (a very large group of 12 NUS students who are in their final week) passed us whilst heading to their classroom.

Then someone else took the other three girls away (which was not surprising, since they're from French 2) and Denise and I were left exclaiming, "Didn't they say three groups?!"

But our fears went unfounded as we were soon led to a classroom at the end of the corridor...a classroom containing only the previous batch.

So it's basically like being in Singapore, except that if French classes were this fun in Singapore, I would never think twice about taking French 4 next year. :P Anyway, the classroom is a nice little room with table arranged around the teacher, conference-style (and if only we had proper TABLES in French class back home).

We did some basic stuff, stuff that I learnt in poly and was therefore glad to revise (like personal questions and masculine/feminine country names), as well as stuff from French 2 (the past tenses and family trees). Before long two hours had passed and it was 11 a.m., which meant a 30 min break at the break room which has a watercooler and a vending machine. Oh, and it has stairs leading down to an area that overlooks the sea.

Then it was back to class until 1 p.m. We went round the class naming animals ("pig" for me), colours ("green" for me), and places of interest in France (the Pont du Gard for me). We were also given a small assignment for tomorrow: translating an English/Chinese/Malay/whatever idiom to French.

Once class ended, we all headed down to the cafeteria for lunch. Not much of a selection - just rice and curry chicken, and sides if you want. But they did have a very good dish of chilli sauce. I had the rice and chicken, which cost €5.44.

The Big Group of Singaporeans sat at one long table talking loudly, all happy as clams, whilst us five New Arrivals sat at a round booth discussing our experiences so far. Surprisingly, two of them (Valerie and ER) were on the exact same train that we took to Brest. Nobody seems to be living near each other though. And everyone spent Monday out with their host family, having a picnic at the Botanic Gardens or on their boat out at the beach, yada-yada.

At 1.45 p.m. the New Arrivals met two local students, Laetitia and Clémence, who would be showing us around town. We walked to the bus stop and they told us how much a single ticket costs (€1.25) as well as a weekly pass (€9.80). We boarded bus 27 outside school and rode to Brest.

So it turns out that we are staying in Le Relecq-Kerhuon and it is NOT part of Brest; Brest is in fact a separate town and I suppose that means Le Relecq-Kerhuon is town by itself too. We now know why they didn't let us stay in Brest, because it is SO DAMN FAR from school! The ride took 40 to 45 min and felt neverending. Not to mention there is little ventilation on the buses here.

The buildings in Brest weren't particularly nice. It's a pity almost the whole city was destroyed by aerial bombardment during WWII.

Anyway, our trip to Brest was very brief because our guides couldn't stay long and although we wanted to stay on, we needed their help to get back! We were shown the two shopping centres in Brest though; as we approached the second one I saw my favourite sign in the world, that of H&M! Denise and I made a beeline for the shop, but we only had 13 min so we are determined to go back soon, hopefully tomorrow after our afternoon activity.

We also bought weekly bus passes (except for Denise, who lives literally next door to school). And then we took the bus back.

Laetitia had kindly given us the names of our nearest bus stops, and I was the first to get off at Moulin Blanc. It was a very nice wide bay with a rocky shore but I had little time to admire it because I had NO IDEA HOW TO GET HOME. There was no nearer day bus stop (although there was a nearer night bus stop) and on the map it looked like I had a horribly long distance to cover. To make things worse, of all days I had forgotten to apply my sunblock!

For the next 30 min I walked down countless dusty streets with the sun shining right at me, aided only by my map and my vague memories of my drive from the train station. I did lose my way and wasted a great deal of time, before I decided to backtrack (a lot!) and realised that although I had seen the sign for Rue de la Rade, I had continued on when I was supposed to turn down the street, From then on it was a downhill walk on the pebbly road with the sea looming in the distance...and then I reached the house at 5.05 p.m., when I had gotten off at Moulin Blanc at 4.35 p.m.!

Mr Stephan had just exited the gate and I exclaimed, "Hello! I got lost!" before returning to my room. I had to chase two giant flies out before I could change.

I tried to take a one-hour nap but that failed miserably because there was this stupid fly buzzing in my ear; things only got slightly better when I covered my head with my hoodie.

Dinner conversation was slightly better today; at least I could talk about school. Mrs Stephan told me about the museums in Brest too. We had tomato and egg salad before proceeding to the main course - thick slices of ham. It didn't look like much so I took two slices, which I soon seriously regretted because they were insanely filling. Plus there was no sauce, so although they were nice they were also hard to swallow. So poor Mr and Mrs Stephan had to wait whilst I slowwwwwwwly finished my food. I think they finally got bored and turned on the TV. But when I finished, Mrs Stephan immediately handed me dessert - mini frosted baguette-shaped biscuits in a bowl of apple puree. I actually managed to finish it and then (as usual) went to bathe before heading to my room.