The First Time I've Ever Worked

The First Time I’ve Ever Worked

It really hit me about half way through December, I suddenly realised I still didn’t have anywhere to go. I had already applied to the European Union in Strasbourg as a translator, but they could only have people over eighteen. I was shocked to find out they were not going to make an exception for someone as talented and clever as me. So I really had to find somewhere quick! I thought about going to the vets but I am tragically disabled with asthma. I also thought about going to work at the Road Research Laboratory, but I decided I wanted to work somewhere in France, so that I could get my exceptionally good French even better. I asked my parents if I could go to the school near Saubion on the Spanish border, where I had been for the last half of my six month exchange. But they were not prepared to drive that far (2000 miles trip) just for a week. That left the other school in Orléans where I stayed for the first half of my six month exchange.

The next day I asked Mr. Burnett if that would be possible. He said that I would have to ring up and ask. That night I telephoned the school. It was the first time I had spoken French to a French person in over six months, so you can imagine I was a little rusty. When they answered I was greeted by a high pitched voice on the other end. I told them who I was and what I wanted to do. The woman on the other end then transferred me to someone else with a high pitched voice. I tried to repeat everything I had told the first person, but she did not seem to understand anything what so ever. Eventually she said to me that it is certainly possible and that she would speak to the Principle. The next day I told Mr. Burnett what had been said. He said that he was going to get one of the French teachers to ring the school and ask who would be responsible for me. About a week and a half went by and he eventually came back and said that he had sent a letter, but had got no response as yet. Later that week my mother wanted to come into the school and ask Mrs. Piquoit if she could ring up the school and ask what I should do about lunch, whether I would be shadowing an English teacher, and where I should go on the first day. These were only the vital questions that we needed to know before we get there, so there was no rush as it was only next week. Mrs. Piquoit didn’t ring until Thursday as she was ill. I had to ask her at break if she had phoned yet and she said she would do it immediatly. I ended up outside the staff room for the entire break. Just before the bell rang she came out and told me I needed money to buy meal tickets, that I will be following an English teacher, and that I should just walk into the building and find the nearest adult.

We started to drive down on Saturday, and got on the channel tunnel at about seven thirty. When we reached France we tried to book into a hotel for the night but everywhere was full, so we ended up in the Premiere Classe hotel in Calais. We got into Orléans at around four on Sunday. My mother had already reserved a hotel near the school called a Fast hotel but they didn’t open till five, so we decided we would find the way to the school. This proved vital as it took us a long time to find it. When we got back to the hotel a woman pulled up in the car park and opened the door. We went inside and it stank of wet dog and smoke which meant I was having difficulty from asthma. We went up to the desk and asked if we could book in. She asked us how long we would be staying. We told her for a week. My mother asked if we could book a room just for tonight because we hadn’t been in one of these before. This woman didn’t have a clue what we were talking about so I had to translate. Eventually she understood and told us we had to book it for the whole week but my mother wouldn’t. This really annoyed the woman and she started swearing in French, which annoyed my mother who said give us the room for tonight or we shall go else where. She eventually agreed and gave us the key. We went to the room and we didn’t like it. The next morning we drove to the school and my mum drove into the teacher’s car park this clearly aggravated some one else trying to get parked as there were no more spaces.

We walked through the teacher’s gate, past a lot of pupils waiting at another gate. We got into the building at eight o’clock and went to the administration office and straight away. The administrator, Mr. Cotton, recognised me and came to greet us. I explained why I was here and he clearly had no idea that I was coming. Later he took us to another office where we were told to sit and wait. It got to nearly half past eight, a bell rang and later the playground was filled with pupils. About five or ten minutes later the deputy ...

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I walked through the door and every student in there stared at me as if I had leprosy or something. I looked away from the pupils towards the teacher, who was called Muriel Trentin. She had short brown highlighted hair, brown eyes, round spectacles and a small face. She was quite tall and skinny; she wore a navy blue skirt and a white blouse. She came over to us and started rambling on in French to the secretary who then rambled back. She then turned to me and asked what I was supposed to be doing. I told her. She told me to sit near the back of the class. I started moving, I could see all the heads turn and the eyes follow. I stared at the wall. Eventually I got to the back and sat on my own. Half the class were still looking at me. I was so nervous I hadn’t realised that the teacher was explaining who I was. The heads kept turning back and fourth. Mme Trentin then told me that this was a 5eme class. I looked around at them all. I’d never seen any of them before, but they all seemed to know me. Mme Trentin then told me they were doing questions in the past tense. She told them to ask me some questions and could I answer them. The first question was did you have to come in France for work experience? The answer was no. We did this for ten or fifteen minutes. The class then had to copy down the lesson that Mme Trentin had written up. Later the bell went and she gave them homework. They all got up to leave, and I went up to the front of the class and asked what was going to happen next. She told me the next class would arrive soon. Meanwhile she and I were being bombarded with question in both languages. She told them all to leave and get to their next lesson. As they walked out the door I noticed a tall boy staring at me I turned and looked at him suddenly he cried out

“Ohh! Jarek!”

I suddenly realised it was a boy named Usef who I knew from last year when I was there. I also noticed some other people that I knew. Mme Trentin taught a similar lesson to the now 3eme class, I always knew them being in 4eme. The bell went and it was break time. Mme Trentin asked me what I wanted to do. I said I would try and find some of my previous friends although I spent most of my time walking round. It was nearly time for the next lesson so I went to the door of the administration office which was where Mme Trentin told me to wait. I saw lots of children queuing waiting for their teacher to come and get them. Some of the classes were already being taken in. Many of the children came over and shook my hand some I knew some I didn’t.

Eventually Mme Trentin came out and we went to get her class. This was another 3eme class and there were some other people that I knew. Again the lesson was very similar.

Mme Trentin didn’t have any more lessons and she went home for lunch. So she got a responsible pupil to take me to lunch in the canteen. She explained to this boy that I had to be with Mme Bernier at two o’clock. She then left and we met up with some of this boy’s friends and we went to lunch. The boy explained to the registering person at the entrance that I had some money to buy a ticket. She then said I had to buy them in advance. In the end I got my lunch for free. It was not nice. It was a lump of burnt bony chicken and some peas in water. The boy next to me left his, so I did the same. I moved on to my desert which was a very small yogurt. After lunch we went and sat on a bench in the playground. Before I knew it there was a small crowd of people surrounding me. They all were asking questions at the same time. I couldn’t keep up. I felt very nervous. Eventually I decided to leave. So I got up and walked away trying to look like I was going somewhere. It didn’t work. I had no where to go. So I went back when the crowd had dispersed. I hung around with this boy until two o’clock. Then the bell went. I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to be. I knew this boy knew so I stayed with him. Two o’clock past us by then half past then at ten past three Mme Trentin walked in, just as a bell rang again. She came and got me and we went to the staff room. We walked in and Mme Bernier came up and asked where I had been. I explained that I had stayed with this boy. She then said to Mme Trentin that I was supposed to be with her from two o’clock until five to three. I had another two lessons with Mme Trentin, so they decided that I would spend the first one with Mme Bernier and the later with Mme Trentin. I went with Mme Bernier to collect her class. It was a 6eme class. She explained who I was there and then. Again they all stared at me. During the lesson Mme Bernier thought it would be a good idea to test my French. I didn’t like this, although the lesson was alright. At the end all the boys asked if I played games on the internet I told them what I did. All the girls wanted to know if I had a girlfriend I told them no not at the moment. They all then wanted my phone number. I explained it would cost them a lot to call me in England.

It was now ten past five and I went with Mme Trentin down the corridor. Her class had just left. I walked in she asked me what I had done. I told her as the next class walked in. Once I had finished I looked round to see who was there. I saw a girl that I knew called Audrey from when I was there last. She looked different, she was much taller but still not quite as tall as me, and her hair seemed a lot darker. She eventually spotted me, we made eye contact and her eyes lit up, and then she looked away in embarrassment. Last time I was there, she kept following me. At first I didn’t realise, and then one day she just sat down with me and blurted out I love you. I was unsure of what to say. Eventually I said that didn’t love her then but that we could be good friends. She seemed disappointed at the time. I didn’t get the chance to talk to her that lesson, and I didn’t see her again until the end of the week. That lesson seemed to go extremely slowly as I was sat at the back doing nothing for most of the lesson. The bell went at last at five past five. I got up and went to the front, Mme Trentin and I walked out through the gate. I spotted my mother in the car waiting for me. So Mme Trentin and I went over to talk to her. We arranged that we would go to Mme Trentin’s house for lunch tomorrow. After that my mother and I went to Auchun a supermarket nearby our hotel. We bought something to eat and went to the hotel. There wasn’t much to do, so I just watched a film on my portable DVD player. I wasn’t going to watch French television because there was nothing on.

The next day I didn’t have to come in until nine o’clock, as Mme Trentin didn’t start until then. When I got there she was doing some photocopying in the staff room. We talked about the differences in the two schools until our next lesson at quarter past nine. The lesson was about the same things again, although I was a bit more involved this time. I stayed with her at break time and we went to the staff room. I managed to talk to my previous sports teacher, and arrange for me to come to the badminton and table tennis club on Saturday afternoon. The next lesson was with a 5eme class, so it was a bit different, although very similar all the children were asking me questions during and after the lesson. I t came to lunch time and Mme Trentin and I met up with my mother outside. We then drove to here house for a meal. She gave us some grilled chicken, fried potatoes and some other vegetables. It was very nice. We went back at three o’clock, although I should have been back at two o’clock for a lesson with Mme Denat. But again no one really cared. Mme Trentin had another two lessons and Mme Bernier wanted me again. So I spent one with her and one with Mme Trentin. My mother picked me up and we went to Flunch restaurant which was round the back of Auchun.

The next day I only had tree lessons one of which I spent in the library reading a Sherlock Holmes book in English, because she had a test. I stopped at half past eleven. My mum picked me up and we went back to the hotel. Later at one o’clock I went to the school gym, where there was a club on. I really wanted to play against my teacher. But I never got the chance. The club finished at two and my teacher was late, so I only played half an hour of table tennis. We spent the rest of the day looking round shops. This was very exciting. We later went back to the hotel.

I had been told not come in on Thursday as all the teachers would be on strike. So we spent most of the day watching films. It was one of the longest days I’ve ever had.

The next day I started at eight again. When I got there Mme Trentin was not there. She didn’t get there until twenty past, just before the lesson started. The first lesson was good because I brought in some quiz books and we tested the class on some questions. I also taught them a lot of tongue twisters. The second lesson was the same except that Audrey was there. She was sad to learn that this was my last day. It came to break time and she followed us all the way to the staff room door. During break I said all my goodbyes to all the teachers and then Mme Trentin and I went to our next lesson. It was with a class she didn’t like, so the lesson was quite boring. I then had one last pointless lesson with Mme Denat. It was completely pointless as I just sat there and the children copied from the board. It came to the end of school and I walked out the gate and got in the car. My mother had already packed everything so we went strait to Calais. It was late when we got there and we booked into the same hotel as before. We then went to City Europe and bought at least ten bottles of a drink that I love and that I can only get in France, its called Danao. I also got some French paper as it is better that our paper.

The next day we got to the Channel Tunnel at about half past nine. We got on and it was a long drive back to Lincoln. We got home at about half past four.

That was a detailed account of my only working experience so far.