First day at work

Monday 11th July

So first day at work is done! It started last night with a strange dream about work. I dreamt that my first task was a game of doubles tennis with Joey from Friends on my side, and the winner would decide how much the clients would pay for some advertising. But a mosquito kept attacking Joey so he went into a shop and realised it didn’t follow him in there, so what he did was he bought some clothes and shoes to repel the mosquito. However, it was a lady’s shop so he had to buy some lady’s clothes which was rather funny. I also dreamt that I went to work with bed hair :-S but don’t worry, I didn’t!

Well, I was rather pleased that the reality at work was nothing like my strange, strange dream. Nick came with me in the morning and I was about 15 minutes early. First thing to sort was my card to get in and out and which also has the money on for lunch, then I had a little tour – got to see the stationery man who will provide me with lots of stationery as and when I need it. When won’t I need stationery?! On my tour I met loads of people with lots of “enchanté”s and names that I will never remember. I thought it was just one floor, but nope, 3 floors for me to get lost in – quite a labyrinth!

From there I met the other English girl who was teaching and we chatted about general stuff to do with lessons and planning and the fact that David Montero has left the uni. Then came lunch – which isn’t free, but only cost 90 cents (it’s heavily subsidised) and I get more on my salary to compensate for not getting a completely free lunch. Séverine (my boss) and Carys (English girl) had lunch with me and we chatted (in French of course) about vegetarianism (Carys is also vegetarian and the person before her was as well), holidays, jogging and other such general business.

In the afternoon I experienced two very different lessons. The first was with two very outgoing guys both with a good level of English and we did a mini debate and some phrasal verbs. The second wasn’t such a success unfortunately, he seemed to completely lack self-confidence and at one point I thought he was going to cry (we think it was the pressure of having two English speakers there, but who knows)!

Well, I made it through the first day and I’m actually quite looking forward to starting properly and giving my own lessons! Now we’re off to eat out to “celebrate” the first day :-)