Taking on the Challenge

Ok, so it's day eleven and here I am, trying to think of a way to sum up the last seven days in one short paragraph. It's quite hard! I finished my last post with work, so I'll start there and see where I end up. Work here is great fun - every day there's something new, many excited children and a lot of dressing up (pirates, anyone?)! The great thing about children is that they don't care that you aren't French - they just go ahead and speak anyway. I've had many a child come up to me, jabbering excitedly about something or other, and as long as I nod and look interested, they seem to be happy. The difficulty comes when I have to give instructions - the accent is hard enough when you're speaking to one person, but a group of 30? Quite a challenge! But a challenge I can take. I am really enjoying this new stretching of my capabilities, and it's definitely never boring. I even had to translate from French to German for most of the days this week for a little German girl called Lily! In short, the work this week has been incredibly tiring but incredibly rewarding.

On to of that, there's the nightlife. I think I'm going to have to continue, as there's still a lot to be said - I hope you don't mind that this post is a bit longer than the previous two. As nearly everyone lives here at the holiday village, there is a lot of opportunity to meet people and make friends with the other 'animateurs' (and others). In addition, we are right near the beach, so there is a pretty good opportunity to go down to 'la plage', or even 'la crique' (WordReference tells me that this is a cove) to do a bit of socialising! The language is rather more difficult when it is dark/noisy/full of people, so I am quite often a silent bystander, but I'm getting there on the talking front - at least they tell me my accent is 'mignon' (cute) - a little patronising but positive all the same. I have also made friends with a Spanish girl called Lara, so quite often I end up spending the night talking in two or three different languages!

OK, I think that's enough for now. I'll tell you all about the people here, and the events that are put on, and perhaps that fact that I've signed up to be in a show (!) next week. That is, unless something else momentous happens that I don't know about yet. Oh, and we are going to have another resident in our little flat this afternoon (Marion), so I shall have to tell you all about her. Until then - farewell - au revoir!