caen

I spent a month between 29th May and 26th June 1999 in Normandy, France. Our base camp was
a town called Caen, but I stayed with a very nice family in the small town of Luc Sur Mer. I was
there on a student exchange. 19 High school french students from various schools in Glasgow went
to stay with various french families in Caen and the surrounding area.

I stayed with the Hamelins, they were really fantastic and I can't thank them enough for a fabulous
month. They took me on many visits including Claude Monet's house and the Mont St Michel. I had
great fun with them all, not a dull moment. I really miss them all.

I came from a very small school in Glasgow which was merging with another small struggling school, so the
Lycee Victor Hugo was a great surprise. Lockers, common rooms, huge gym, millions of class-rooms,
internet access for students, 5 seperate buildings, the school cafe actually served edible food (most of the
time).

Attending classes was interesting. Maths is hard enough without trying to understand it in French, although
we understood most of a computing class as they use IF, BEGIN, ELSE, END and words like that in
English. The Spanish, Danish, German, Portugese, Greek, Italian and God knows what other language
classes were usually skipped by the Scottish students. English classes were good. Although the first one I
went to was a bit of a disaster. Apart from a teacher who was teaching the pupils English that was wrong!
She gave back test results that students scrumpled up and threw at her. When she told them in French that
they were setting a bad example to me, the Scottish person, the "Ecossaise", The whole class started
chanting "Ecossaise, Ecossaise, Ecossaise" and banging the desks. Then half the class got up and left. In
other more controlled English classes we had group discussions etc.

The picture above is Lise (Ma correspondante) singing a French song at a soiree at the school. She was
really fantastic.The group waiting in the background played after them they were good too but they tried
to sing Wonderwall and didn't know the words much to the amusmant of the Scottish students.

We went on various trips and visits in the third week to help with our project on tourism in Caen. The
photo above is the Bayeux cathedral. We'd just been to see the Bayeux tapistry and were told we
had 20 minutes to look around the town. We sat for 15 minutes laughing our heads off at absolutely
nothing. We all agreed we were laughing at each others laughs, but no one knows exactly what
started the laughing in the first place.

The photo above was taken at Ouistreham beach. We were told we had an hour at Ouistreham before
we took a boat down the canal back to Caen, but we all got the early bus, to get an extra hour, and went
swimming in the sea. It was a bit cold, as you can see if you look at Paul! But it was great. The boat trip
was a bit boring. "To your left you can see a factory and just a little further up there is another
factory...now here is a bridge..."

Working on the project itself was tough as me and my partner Myra had skived off into town to go
window shopping when we were told we could go and find postcards or pictures to stick to our
projects if we wanted. So we were left with 3 hours on Friday to start from Scratch and finish! And we
did it, we were shattered, but our project on the Port de Plaisance and Water Sports in Normandy
looked fantastic.

I did my work experience at the Office du Tourisme in Luc Sur Mer, the town where I stayed. It was
great. It was only 10 minutes walk from the Hamelin's house and the hours were great. On Wednesday
and Thursday I only worked 2 hours in the Afternoon. I was giving out leaflets and answering questions
to the tourists that came in. The French people were hard enough to understand but when they come in
talking at 100mph, mumbling or even stuttering....I could understand most of them though. The staff at
the tourist office were really nice, including Monique who was in charge of me (she took the photo
above).

During our visit myself and afew fellow Scots held a competition to see which French person said
the most La's after the Ooh. And what sort of thing causes the most La's. Here is our league table.
Congratulations to The School Librarian!

Name----------------------------No. of La's-----------------Cause of La's

The School Librarian--------------12--------------------Spotted graffitti on desk

Jonny Hamelin---------------------8---------------------Pasta fell on the floor

Lise Hamelin---------------------- 4 --------------------Hearing a crash from the kitchen

Anne-Marie Patry-----------------2---------------------When asked to in a french accent

Biology Teacher-------------------1---------------------On realising bunsen burners are hot