Yup, last Friday, after a week of hard work, I went to a club called the Glee Club with friends to see some Stand-up comedy. The week had been long and painful, I had been a lot at the back of classrooms, observing dreadful teachers and fearless pupils, knowing fully that I would have the pleasure of teaching them myself very soon... Ok, the pupils weren’t that bad, nor were most of the teachers. Actually, I started teaching my worst class long ago. They are the 10K3, and they hate teachers, they hate French, and all they want to do during a French class is talk among themselves, plan some great fun for the weekend, and certainly not listen to a word we say. But, fortunately, I have Great Scott. Scott is great: he is a fellow PGCE student, and he is also at Hillcrest for his first placement. This means that we spend a LOT of time together, especially doing nothing in the staffroom, like right now. We team-teach two classes: the 9K1 and the 10K3. Well, we will, at some point in the future, teach the 9K1, but they are in the middle of their assessment or something at the moment.
Whatever. On Thursday (yes, I will eventually talk about Stand-up Comedy, bear with me), we went (well, Scott wasn’t there, I’m talking about the other PGCE students) to the pub, at the Bristol Pear, near my place, and then, we went to have some curry at the Shamon, which is one of the best curry in Brum. I haven’t been to any other curry, but I believe it. Oh. My. God. This was so good! I couldn’t of course finish my plate, let alone the nan, but it was brilliant! If anyone comes to visit me in Brum, I’ll take you there! Then, we had planned to go to see the fireworks (Bonfire, folks!). So, Catherine (who had planned all this), Anna, Alex and me went to that place, quite far away, frankly (and yes, we were walking in the cold), and we could see the fireworks in the distance. Catherine had checked on the internet, and it was supposed to begin at 9 and finish at 10. We left the restaurant a bit after 9pm, and when we almost got to the place, we met this crowd going the other way: it actually finished at 9! Arghhh, we walked a long way just to see a few fireworks in the distance... Whatever, the restaurant was great.
Back to Friday and the stand-up comedy. The week hadn’t been terrific, and Friday was the biggest day: I was to solo-teach for the first time ever, and it was for a German lesson! Since the beginning of the year, I really didn’t feel confident at all about my level of German, because I haven’t spoken a word in 8 years, and honestly, I thought it would all come back quite quickly, but it didn’t at all! So, I was terrified. Fortunately, my German housemates helped me a bit with the planning of the use of the Target Language. Still, I felt quite nervous, especially as the teacher had told me to do the whole classroom routine at the beginning, like calling the register, checking if they all had their equipment, and all. But it all went well! I loved it, and the teacher told at the end of the day, when we met in the staffroom to talk about it, that, this was the first time it ever happened to her with a student teacher, she had absolutely NO suggestion to make, that my lesson was perfect, exactly how she would have done it! I love that woman! And, after that, I had a lesson of French too, and I also was a bit nervous, but it went so well too! So, by the end of the day, I was in a great mood, and I knew that I was going to see some stand-up comedy with some great friends. How cool is that?
So, I met with Nirvana (she was the one inviting me) and her friends at a bar called Las Iguanas (latino, as you will have guessed). We had a sangria before heading to the club. It is quite a small club, although I can’t really compare with any other. The stage is small, and in front of it are the tables: they are arranged in a semi-circle. We were sitting almost at the front (but not quite, because that is the worst possible place at a stand-up comedy show, because then you are always picked up by the comedian). The line-up was excellent: even Nirvana, who goes quite often, said that she had never seen such a great show. My favourites were the last two artists, especially the last one: Michael McIntyre. He was just Brilliant. He improvised a lot, and was never boring, or even banal. Really, I loved it! Then (the show lasted about 3 hours), we went for a last drink at a club near by. We had apparently just missed Chris Barrett there. No idea who he is, personally, but he is apparently famous on my side of the Channel, and last but not least, he is gorgeous. I’ll have to check that, I think.
So, yeah, that was a bloody good evening!
One last thing: I heard it was cold in France, but here, it is OMG so cold! Look at the picture: that’s the front garden (at my place), and, yes, it’s like that every morning. And the worst thing: the sunset is now at about 4:30pm, and it’s only the beginning of November! Bouh.....
