C'est une vie difficile

Today I went on a school trip, to the cinema...with the troisième and quatrième INTER. Sometimes, I just have such a hard life. The only stress was making sure everyone got on and off the tram at the right stops (that's right, in France, where you can public transport is used rather than hiring a bus) and then I got to see 'Lincoln', for free and get paid for my trouble! Now that can't be bad. Now, the film was not really my cup of tea to be completely honest with you. I mean, it was a good watch...once. It is not going to be one of those films that I revisit over and over again and discover new and interesting things about it with each watching. However, very good as a documentary and very pertinent indeed for the speaking exams of the troisième INTER who all studied the Emancipation Proclamation for their most recent theme (Black in a White World).

My morning had been spent with the sixième INTER, in what had turned into a slight interrogation of myself...as they had to write an article for the school newspaper about me. I felt bad because a lot of the questions they asked me (Do you want to come back to work here? Do you want to live in France forever?) are questions that I am in fact asking myself and not feeling able to answer. A lot of my answers therefore started with "I don't know, but...". I guess I just have to work by Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscrean)', especially the phrase 'Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch. Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life...the most interesting people I know didn't know at twenty-two what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting forty year olds I know still don't', replacing the words 'what you want to do' with 'where you want to live'. I guess one day I will just know, even though that might be a really naïve way to look at it...but I'm still young enough to get away with saying that (I hope). Time is still flying by, and no matter how much I want to put the brakes on, I know that I just have to accept this fact and move on. My final lesson before the trip was with the troisième INTER (yes, I see them a lot, they will be the class I miss the most!) who are starting their new topic of 'Anglophone Influences upon India'...starting with a bit of background about the Victorian Era followed by 'The White Man's Burden' by Rudyard Kipling. Will be interesting to see who picks up on the patronising tone, especially since it is in a second language for them all.

My evening was spent in recuperation and preparation for the rest of the week, complete with a Skype session with my Mum (and a little bit with Dad too!) and an attempt to type up and catch up with my missing blip days and having a look at all you lovely people's photographs, something I always enjoy doing. Oh, and this graffiti is Serge Gainsbourg, pretty famous Frenchman...and is the first in my week of no portraiture...even though I know there is in fact a woman in this photograph, she didn't know it was being taken...she was in such a rush I don't think she even noticed what she was walking past. Becoming interested in photography really showed me what I had missed for all those years, the little things...or the massive works of graffiti art. Sometimes we look but we just don't see.