Another fun-filled weekend here! PA was in town Friday, so we got to hang out. Saturday was Katherine day! She came around 10am to go to the market, and then we ran out to the library and did some shopping throughout the day. It's nice out again, so skirts were welcome! I also had my first galette saucisse and an AMAZING falafal sandwich from Le Mont liban, right across the place from my apartment! Mmm...
Caitlin joined us, and we headed over to Kelsey's for a little asisstants' party. Chatting and dancing with a finish at Le Delicatessen for more dancing :) Katherine left for home, and Caitlin stayed with me for Sunday. We ran errands, finally checked out the interior of the church that I see from my windows, and ate another falafal sandwich. The afternoon was spent in the grass at the park with a million other people because there is a music festival going on in town with two stages set up in the park as well. It was delightful!
Now it's a quiet Monday, still sunny! I'm doing laundry and preparing my lesson on line dances for my students this afternoon... The Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha Slide! It's all because I had a dream about teaching them dancing! I figure, it's the last week, so why not?!
Showing posts with label assistants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assistants. Show all posts
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
My last month of working in France!
Friday was one of the sadder days of my French children teaching career--three students just cut my class! I was in my room at 11:30 and waited for twenty minutes before going to ask the teacher if I had the right hour. Apparently, she had sent three students to me and they decided to leave campus for an early lunch instead of working with me :( It was rather heart-breaking...
I had another class where the prof asked me to prepare them for presenting texts for their final oral exam. The problem is that no one explained to me how it works, so I couldn't really answer their questions! Ugh. Only eleven more workdays to go.
Friday evening I went to Vitré to hang out with the ever-cool Caitlin and Katherine. We ate spicy chili, made brownies and pumpkin bread, and danced. The next morning was when we ate the pumpkin bread... Then we had to catch the train to Rennes.
At 5, assistant Kelsey was hosting a party to exchange clothes and books and just mingle in general with other assistants. She made a delicious champagne, vodka, and pineapple juice punch, and I brought White Russian fixin's. The offical invite was from 5 to 7, but we all stayed until 11ish, dancing and eating up all the snacks available because we had all missed our dinner! The last group of me, Caitlin, Kelsey, and Kelsey's French boyfriend Steven went to my place for hookah, then us girls went to the nearby club Delicatessan to dance awhile. I think we only made it to 2:30am this time, but we also didn't spend money getting in or buying drinks at the club, so it worked out just fine.
This morning, Caitlin and I are relaxing over leftover spicy chili and fresh pico de gallo with tortilla chips. It's gonna be a lazy day because her next train home isn't until 7pm. So movies, books, chillin'... My abs and legs are soooo sore from the hours of dancing I've put my body through this weekend.
Also, I officially enrolled at George Washington University! Hooray! Come visit me in Washington, D.C. next year!
I had another class where the prof asked me to prepare them for presenting texts for their final oral exam. The problem is that no one explained to me how it works, so I couldn't really answer their questions! Ugh. Only eleven more workdays to go.
Friday evening I went to Vitré to hang out with the ever-cool Caitlin and Katherine. We ate spicy chili, made brownies and pumpkin bread, and danced. The next morning was when we ate the pumpkin bread... Then we had to catch the train to Rennes.
At 5, assistant Kelsey was hosting a party to exchange clothes and books and just mingle in general with other assistants. She made a delicious champagne, vodka, and pineapple juice punch, and I brought White Russian fixin's. The offical invite was from 5 to 7, but we all stayed until 11ish, dancing and eating up all the snacks available because we had all missed our dinner! The last group of me, Caitlin, Kelsey, and Kelsey's French boyfriend Steven went to my place for hookah, then us girls went to the nearby club Delicatessan to dance awhile. I think we only made it to 2:30am this time, but we also didn't spend money getting in or buying drinks at the club, so it worked out just fine.
This morning, Caitlin and I are relaxing over leftover spicy chili and fresh pico de gallo with tortilla chips. It's gonna be a lazy day because her next train home isn't until 7pm. So movies, books, chillin'... My abs and legs are soooo sore from the hours of dancing I've put my body through this weekend.
Also, I officially enrolled at George Washington University! Hooray! Come visit me in Washington, D.C. next year!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Rainy Rennes...
Friday and Saturday were lovely, spring-like and carefree days... I shopped a bit (scarf, light jacket, sweater), saw two movies (Le nom des gens and The King's Speech, both good), and had a group dinner with assistants Saturday night at the vegetarian restaurant again. Afterwards, we went to Café St Georges for drinks, and I talked mostly to Kelsey, an American assistant from California who also has a French boyfriend, and Steven, her boyfriend.
A ton of sleep and I feel so much better! But time passes sooooo slowly in France on a Sunday where nothing is open. On the agenda for the rest of the day is to finish a fellowship application and find some more icebreaker questions for my students this week!
Sadly, today is very rainy and soggy, so my plans to go running have been foiled... :( I miss working out in a gym where inclement weather can't hurt you. It's sad I can't even go on a walkabout.
Later, mes amis!
A ton of sleep and I feel so much better! But time passes sooooo slowly in France on a Sunday where nothing is open. On the agenda for the rest of the day is to finish a fellowship application and find some more icebreaker questions for my students this week!
Sadly, today is very rainy and soggy, so my plans to go running have been foiled... :( I miss working out in a gym where inclement weather can't hurt you. It's sad I can't even go on a walkabout.
Later, mes amis!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Parties and sleepiness
The weekend was rather whirlwind here for me!
Went from six hours of work on Friday direct to the train station to go to Vitre! Caitlin, Katherine, Amanda, David and I had a fun filled evening of coffee, Indian food, bar, microbrewery, club, and a McDonald's visit at 5am! Damn! We were also stalked the entire night by a Brazilian guy who came to speak English with us... Funny how "Americans," North and South, seem to band together to survive Europe.
Our brunch when we were up again around noon consisted of a delicious breakfast casserole that we all helped cook :) It was like being in college again! Haha!
Back in Rennes around 5pm, I napped, ate dinner, and headed to PA's for another party with his friends. I don't really know most of them, and I was exhausted, so I retired to sleep in his room for most of it--and let me tell you that the party lasted past 6am! French students can just keep going and going and going and going...
Sunday was another day of recovery! Luckily, my lessons were already planned for the week, so I could concentrate on sleeping and watching tv. Phew!
It was so good to get out! As Caitlin pointed out, there are only nine weeks of teaching left with two weeks of break the first week in March! That's only about 90-100 hours of work (what we normally did in the span of a week in college)... Oh, how life will change when I'm back in the States, hopefully in grad school!
PA's Fulbright interview is Wednesday! Wish him luck to get some grad school money! xD
:*
Went from six hours of work on Friday direct to the train station to go to Vitre! Caitlin, Katherine, Amanda, David and I had a fun filled evening of coffee, Indian food, bar, microbrewery, club, and a McDonald's visit at 5am! Damn! We were also stalked the entire night by a Brazilian guy who came to speak English with us... Funny how "Americans," North and South, seem to band together to survive Europe.
Our brunch when we were up again around noon consisted of a delicious breakfast casserole that we all helped cook :) It was like being in college again! Haha!
Back in Rennes around 5pm, I napped, ate dinner, and headed to PA's for another party with his friends. I don't really know most of them, and I was exhausted, so I retired to sleep in his room for most of it--and let me tell you that the party lasted past 6am! French students can just keep going and going and going and going...
Sunday was another day of recovery! Luckily, my lessons were already planned for the week, so I could concentrate on sleeping and watching tv. Phew!
It was so good to get out! As Caitlin pointed out, there are only nine weeks of teaching left with two weeks of break the first week in March! That's only about 90-100 hours of work (what we normally did in the span of a week in college)... Oh, how life will change when I'm back in the States, hopefully in grad school!
PA's Fulbright interview is Wednesday! Wish him luck to get some grad school money! xD
:*
Friday, February 4, 2011
Updates in this, the second month of 2011!
Another class cancelled without warning this morning, so I shall blog!
The week was pretty typical... Wajd and Philouse (PA's roommates) had a party Wednesday night of other dental school students. I just DJ'ed most of the night, but one girl actually had a convo with me! Hooray for friendliness!
For classes, I've been having the kids fill in the stories to blank comic strips. They're doing a great job--if a really funny one pops up, I'll take a picture for y'all!
I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately... I think that since the weather is warming up (it's spring-like here, so haha to you Chicagoans in the snow right now xD), people are going crazy! They're out partying on my square and singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" under my window at 1am... :/ Boo... And I ALWAYS get woken up by the trash collecters at 6am! Ahhh!
So what else is up? I'm taking up running again, especially since the weather is nice enough to run in SHORTS in FEBRUARY! I'm so bad though! I used to run 4/5 days a week for 30 to 45min, and now I'm doing 2 days with just barely 30mins! Yoga is still going strong though! I'm trying to put my free time to healthy use.
I'm headed to Vitré this afternoon for Indian food, assistants, and partying :) Then, back to Rennes on Saturday for another party at PA's place for his friend that is finally coming back from her assistantship in Ireland. Pictures and stories to follow, I'm sure ;)
The week was pretty typical... Wajd and Philouse (PA's roommates) had a party Wednesday night of other dental school students. I just DJ'ed most of the night, but one girl actually had a convo with me! Hooray for friendliness!
For classes, I've been having the kids fill in the stories to blank comic strips. They're doing a great job--if a really funny one pops up, I'll take a picture for y'all!
I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately... I think that since the weather is warming up (it's spring-like here, so haha to you Chicagoans in the snow right now xD), people are going crazy! They're out partying on my square and singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" under my window at 1am... :/ Boo... And I ALWAYS get woken up by the trash collecters at 6am! Ahhh!
So what else is up? I'm taking up running again, especially since the weather is nice enough to run in SHORTS in FEBRUARY! I'm so bad though! I used to run 4/5 days a week for 30 to 45min, and now I'm doing 2 days with just barely 30mins! Yoga is still going strong though! I'm trying to put my free time to healthy use.
I'm headed to Vitré this afternoon for Indian food, assistants, and partying :) Then, back to Rennes on Saturday for another party at PA's place for his friend that is finally coming back from her assistantship in Ireland. Pictures and stories to follow, I'm sure ;)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Everybody's working for the weekend!
Nothing much happens around here except for the weekends, and this one was rather exciting! Friday I tidied up the apartment and made rum punch and jello shots with PA for a party at my place. Had a mix of Americans, French, Germans, a Brit, and an Australian. We hung out, danced, played the Apples to Apples game that PA translated into French. It was so chill and fun!
Saturday was busy again. Caitlin, Katherine, and I joined the visiting assistants from Fougères, Amanda and David, for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! Tons of unidentified veggies and tofu with yummy flavors! They even gave us a free dessert :)
From there, we went directly to Le Haricot Rouge for lattes, hot chocolate, and cookies. We played War and talked American politics, which was so fun. We got to wandering the streets in the unusual sun after that, stopping in the 2euro store (I guess a bit classier than a $1 store at home). I discovered a scalp massager that looks like a whisk whose loops got cut at the ends—it feels soooo good!
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| Scalp massager! |
We split up around four. Caitlin and Katherine hung out at my place for awhile, but Caitlin had to catch a train back to Vitré to get laundry done. Katherine stuck around to go out for Indian food, which was AMAZING! Lamb buryani with actual spiciness! And samosas! I was in heaven ;)
So I spent tons of money on food Saturday, but the flavors and conversations that accompanied it were priceless!
Last night, there was a party in the apartment above me, so I managed to sleep from 11pm-3:30am and then again 5am-noon! I've got to plan some lessons and clean from the party, *sigh*
Other recent photos that I've just uploaded:
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| Katherine and my rotisserie chicken lunch! |
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| Part of Vitré's castle! |
Monday, January 24, 2011
Keeping myself busy
I tried to keep myself busy and around other humans this weekend! Friday I met up with Katherine and Anna, a visiting assistant from Normandy. We wandered a bit, then we met Julia for some aperatifs and a crêperie dinner. Half the group went to a feminist club lecture, and Katherine and I just went up to my apartment to chill and watch How I Met Your Mother online.
Saturday, Katherine and I met up with a big group to visit the market. We wandered off into the crowd ourselves and left with a whole roasted chicken and potatos for lunch--SOOOOOO DELICIOUS! The potatos are cooked right under the roasting meat, so they have yummy grease all over them :) Again, a few hours of relaxing and people watching from my window...
Sunday afternoon was spent in Vitré at Caitlin's for an eggplant parmesan and cookie making/eating extravaganza! Unfortunately, the 6:30 train back to Rennes was horribly crowded, and I was in a bad mood from it.
PA and I spent the evening watching the Bears v. Packers game online, and it was way too sad... That was the only football game I've watched this season! How strange...
Only one class today... Now I have some time to prepare my American High Schools lesson to educate these children! And I just want to spend some time reading too... People are fun to hang out with, but I need to study and grow some more wrinkles on my brain.
Fun French fact: "To go window shopping" is "faire du lèche vitrines," which translates literally to "do window licking." HAHAHAHAHA!!! xD
Saturday, Katherine and I met up with a big group to visit the market. We wandered off into the crowd ourselves and left with a whole roasted chicken and potatos for lunch--SOOOOOO DELICIOUS! The potatos are cooked right under the roasting meat, so they have yummy grease all over them :) Again, a few hours of relaxing and people watching from my window...
Sunday afternoon was spent in Vitré at Caitlin's for an eggplant parmesan and cookie making/eating extravaganza! Unfortunately, the 6:30 train back to Rennes was horribly crowded, and I was in a bad mood from it.
PA and I spent the evening watching the Bears v. Packers game online, and it was way too sad... That was the only football game I've watched this season! How strange...
Only one class today... Now I have some time to prepare my American High Schools lesson to educate these children! And I just want to spend some time reading too... People are fun to hang out with, but I need to study and grow some more wrinkles on my brain.
Fun French fact: "To go window shopping" is "faire du lèche vitrines," which translates literally to "do window licking." HAHAHAHAHA!!! xD
Friday, January 21, 2011
Another French education FAIL
In French high schools, teachers can just cancel class with no warning. I waited with a class for fifteen minutes before someone went to ask if she was even at the school--negative. Then the kids all just left campus, half the class on the same metro as me! Coming from a very competitive US school where no class time is ever wasted or cancelled (except for snow), it blows my mind that there are no substitute teachers and that hours can be chipped away from academic time like this! No one is helped in this system!
I am rather outraged for the children's sake, yes, but I'm also annoyed for myself... I have nothing to do outside of work, but it really is annoying to just be waiting around for people who don't give you any notice that they will be gone. It's just inconsiderate. I have other professors that do notify me!
Life update: Sickness healed. Went to a bar last night to see fellow assistant and Knoxvillian Christopher play blues/folk music on guitar and banjo. It was comforting to hear the music of Tennessee, even if I usually only listen to it at Dollywood. Tried to sleep, but Thursday is the party night of the students and Place Sainte Anne was soooooo loud until 2 or 3am... Then the garbage trucks woke me at 5:30... Ugh.
So far this weekend is pretty empty. Since I lost my phone at Disney, I have very few numbers. There is an assistant from Normandy I'm going to meet up with after work to show her the town. Hopefully, something will pop up. The problem is that I'm poor, with only 11,87euros to my name... My housing aid hasn't come through yet, and the website says my file is being studied at the moment :( Guess I'll be mooching until payday next Friday--or just living off the oatmeal and goldfish crackers Ma sent me.
I am rather outraged for the children's sake, yes, but I'm also annoyed for myself... I have nothing to do outside of work, but it really is annoying to just be waiting around for people who don't give you any notice that they will be gone. It's just inconsiderate. I have other professors that do notify me!
Life update: Sickness healed. Went to a bar last night to see fellow assistant and Knoxvillian Christopher play blues/folk music on guitar and banjo. It was comforting to hear the music of Tennessee, even if I usually only listen to it at Dollywood. Tried to sleep, but Thursday is the party night of the students and Place Sainte Anne was soooooo loud until 2 or 3am... Then the garbage trucks woke me at 5:30... Ugh.
So far this weekend is pretty empty. Since I lost my phone at Disney, I have very few numbers. There is an assistant from Normandy I'm going to meet up with after work to show her the town. Hopefully, something will pop up. The problem is that I'm poor, with only 11,87euros to my name... My housing aid hasn't come through yet, and the website says my file is being studied at the moment :( Guess I'll be mooching until payday next Friday--or just living off the oatmeal and goldfish crackers Ma sent me.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Weekend of friends!!!
Well, I just had one of the most fun girls weekends in France! Friday night, Katherine, Caitlin, Kelsey, and I went out to dinner. We tried Adonis, a Lebanese place that PA recommended to me. You order a menu, so we got the mid-price one with seven cold dishes and seven warm dishes for 14 euros a person--so good! There was hummus, stuffed grape leaves, chicken wings, beef and chicken skewers, falafel, shrimp, and so much else to try. We also had a nice aperatif kir and chatted for a long time.
Afterwards, Katherine, Caitlin and I hung out at my place until K's bus at 11. It was like a slumber party with gossip and music and silliness. Very fun! Then, Caitlin and I watched Les femmes de l'ombre (Women of the Shadow) about women spies during World War II. It was kind of intense so we had to watch some funny stuff before going to bed.
We three had planned to meet up for the Satuday market at 11, but poor sleepy Caitlin was a little slow getting out of bed. Instead, in my apartment we had coffee, chatted and people watched from my window. We eventually decided to grab sandwiches and go to a movie, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere that was playing in English with French subtitles. A bit too slow and artsy for me, but it was nice to get out and just see a movie to do something different!
More exciting was the shop we stopped in on the walk back... We bought gorgeous little cakes! We had a bit more time of pretending my apartment was a cafe, perhaps Café Laurène on Place Sainte Anne ;)
But after the friends and fun are gone for the night... things get really quiet in my apartment. I get back to reflection on how my time is being spent here.
Sometimes it feels like my life has gone stagnant here--in a foreign country where daily life is not at all the same as being at home or at school, it is hard to see the big picture. How exactly does a year teaching English to kids in France help me in any of my long-term plans? I just try to remember that not everything in life has to be relevant to ultimate goals and that you have to put in time to get general life and language skills (though it may be slow and frustrating).
Though the professors at the school often say the kids like my lessons, I just don't feel very fulfilled by or interested in the work I do here. Many of the assistants I know have discovered a love for teaching in this program, while I have learned that I do not want to work with anyone under the age of 18 ever again. I guess that is something worth finding out before I tried to get a Masters of teaching or something...
I think I'm just not used to so much alone time now--home, school, dorms, roommates, lots of people have always just been around. Here, if I don't really make an effort, I can spend a whole day not talking to anyone else. I may be going insane in my isolation chamber! Or at least over-analyzing too much...
I can't wait to see my family and my home again!
Afterwards, Katherine, Caitlin and I hung out at my place until K's bus at 11. It was like a slumber party with gossip and music and silliness. Very fun! Then, Caitlin and I watched Les femmes de l'ombre (Women of the Shadow) about women spies during World War II. It was kind of intense so we had to watch some funny stuff before going to bed.
We three had planned to meet up for the Satuday market at 11, but poor sleepy Caitlin was a little slow getting out of bed. Instead, in my apartment we had coffee, chatted and people watched from my window. We eventually decided to grab sandwiches and go to a movie, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere that was playing in English with French subtitles. A bit too slow and artsy for me, but it was nice to get out and just see a movie to do something different!
More exciting was the shop we stopped in on the walk back... We bought gorgeous little cakes! We had a bit more time of pretending my apartment was a cafe, perhaps Café Laurène on Place Sainte Anne ;)
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| Little cakes... YUM! |
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| Hanging out at Cafe Laurène! ;) |
Sometimes it feels like my life has gone stagnant here--in a foreign country where daily life is not at all the same as being at home or at school, it is hard to see the big picture. How exactly does a year teaching English to kids in France help me in any of my long-term plans? I just try to remember that not everything in life has to be relevant to ultimate goals and that you have to put in time to get general life and language skills (though it may be slow and frustrating).
Though the professors at the school often say the kids like my lessons, I just don't feel very fulfilled by or interested in the work I do here. Many of the assistants I know have discovered a love for teaching in this program, while I have learned that I do not want to work with anyone under the age of 18 ever again. I guess that is something worth finding out before I tried to get a Masters of teaching or something...
I think I'm just not used to so much alone time now--home, school, dorms, roommates, lots of people have always just been around. Here, if I don't really make an effort, I can spend a whole day not talking to anyone else. I may be going insane in my isolation chamber! Or at least over-analyzing too much...
I can't wait to see my family and my home again!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
A Wild Turkey Day
Double meaning in that title!
1) The only whole turkey we could find was an expensive, happy, free-range one for 70 euros (fed 10 people).
2) Last night was one of the wildest and silliest Thanksgivings that I've experienced.
The evening started out when Caitlin arrived, and we headed down to the food section of Galeries Lafayette for fancy foods. I couldn't find celery or sage at my usual grocery store, and Caitlin needed chutney and tobasco sauce from the store's extensive international aisle. We also found some flowers as a hostess gift because my mother trained me so well.
We chilled in my apartment for awhile, putting together my dressing and her spinach and apple salad before we went out the door. Dinner was supposed to start at 8, but the turkey, of course, took longer than expected, so the time was changed to 9. We got there around 8:45, so I could use the oven to back the dressing. In the end, we had nine Americans, one Canadian, and one Guatemalan to celebrate with. We had a long appetizer phase while the foods were being reheated, so dinner started at 10:30. Caitlin and I were the turkey carvers!
Now, the food!
-Appetizers: Bread, pâté, cheese, baked brie with fig jam.
-Main meal: Turkey, mashed potatos, gravy, stuffing and dressing, sweet potatos, brussel sprouts, spinach salad, cranberry sauce.
-Desserts: Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, apple pie, apple brownie goo (didn't cook properly), ice cream.
-Drinks: Ten bottles of wine for eleven people!
After dinner, we were stuffed, so we took a long break to chat, listen to music, drink wine, and play the game Cheers Guv'nah. Dessert was served around 1am. After that, everyone was either falling asleep, taking silly pictures, or doing dishes. I did some dancing and tipsy yoga in an effort to stretch my stomach out (didn't work... I still feel full at 12:20pm the next day). Caitlin and I were the second and third to leave around 2:30am. A good night, even though I felt so full that it hurt to breathe. In France, you have to take advantage of these American moments to get you through all the French times!
I forgot to take photos, but I'll steal some from others when they pop up!
1) The only whole turkey we could find was an expensive, happy, free-range one for 70 euros (fed 10 people).
2) Last night was one of the wildest and silliest Thanksgivings that I've experienced.
The evening started out when Caitlin arrived, and we headed down to the food section of Galeries Lafayette for fancy foods. I couldn't find celery or sage at my usual grocery store, and Caitlin needed chutney and tobasco sauce from the store's extensive international aisle. We also found some flowers as a hostess gift because my mother trained me so well.
We chilled in my apartment for awhile, putting together my dressing and her spinach and apple salad before we went out the door. Dinner was supposed to start at 8, but the turkey, of course, took longer than expected, so the time was changed to 9. We got there around 8:45, so I could use the oven to back the dressing. In the end, we had nine Americans, one Canadian, and one Guatemalan to celebrate with. We had a long appetizer phase while the foods were being reheated, so dinner started at 10:30. Caitlin and I were the turkey carvers!
Now, the food!
-Appetizers: Bread, pâté, cheese, baked brie with fig jam.
-Main meal: Turkey, mashed potatos, gravy, stuffing and dressing, sweet potatos, brussel sprouts, spinach salad, cranberry sauce.
-Desserts: Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, apple pie, apple brownie goo (didn't cook properly), ice cream.
-Drinks: Ten bottles of wine for eleven people!
After dinner, we were stuffed, so we took a long break to chat, listen to music, drink wine, and play the game Cheers Guv'nah. Dessert was served around 1am. After that, everyone was either falling asleep, taking silly pictures, or doing dishes. I did some dancing and tipsy yoga in an effort to stretch my stomach out (didn't work... I still feel full at 12:20pm the next day). Caitlin and I were the second and third to leave around 2:30am. A good night, even though I felt so full that it hurt to breathe. In France, you have to take advantage of these American moments to get you through all the French times!
I forgot to take photos, but I'll steal some from others when they pop up!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Long weekend...
So today was far less exciting than planned... The wedding was called off at the last moment, so I stayed in Rennes while PA went to check out the family drama--of which there wasn't any in the end! How dull!
So I texted around and got an invite to the movies with Katherine and Julia. It was the usual French style of slow movie, multiple stories, lots of drama/emotion, lots of smoking and drinking, etc. Oh, the title was Les Petits Mouchoirs or The Little Tissues. It was rather sad at the end, and I definitely don't recommend it.
Afterwards, we had a delicious pizza dinner at La Casa Pepe. Thin crust and way bigger than the plate, it was the best pizza I've had outside of Italy! Whoever visits me here must try it!
There was a brief interlude in my apartment while we waited for some friends to finish their dinner, then we headed to the Cactus bar with Georgia, Seth, Jackie, and her two Guatemalan friends. The music and conversation was good, but they are all traveling to nearby cities for the day tomorrow, so they headed home around midnight.
And here I am... back in my apartment to update y'all and chill. I'm pretty sleepy myself, but that might just be the wine from dinner.
I also learned that I am on the cover of the Furman University Engage magazine with my Africa study abroad buddies! I've made it to print in three continents: Africa, Europe, and North America!
So I texted around and got an invite to the movies with Katherine and Julia. It was the usual French style of slow movie, multiple stories, lots of drama/emotion, lots of smoking and drinking, etc. Oh, the title was Les Petits Mouchoirs or The Little Tissues. It was rather sad at the end, and I definitely don't recommend it.
Afterwards, we had a delicious pizza dinner at La Casa Pepe. Thin crust and way bigger than the plate, it was the best pizza I've had outside of Italy! Whoever visits me here must try it!
There was a brief interlude in my apartment while we waited for some friends to finish their dinner, then we headed to the Cactus bar with Georgia, Seth, Jackie, and her two Guatemalan friends. The music and conversation was good, but they are all traveling to nearby cities for the day tomorrow, so they headed home around midnight.
And here I am... back in my apartment to update y'all and chill. I'm pretty sleepy myself, but that might just be the wine from dinner.
I also learned that I am on the cover of the Furman University Engage magazine with my Africa study abroad buddies! I've made it to print in three continents: Africa, Europe, and North America!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Caitlin is awesome!!!
Haha! So as you can imagine from the title of this post, Caitlin came in to visit from Vitre again! We had planned an evening of fun and dancing... but things did not work out exactly right...
But starting from the beginning: She arrived yesterday evening, and we ran to H&M to buy 80s-esque clothing in order to get free admission to an 80s themed party at a club last night. For some reason, a lot of French fashion is currently 80s revivial. I ended up with big bracelets, a lace skirt, and "reddish purple" leggings. We cooked and ate chili that tasted just like home. Then Caitlin napped and made an 80s playlist, while I cleaned up and chatted with PA.
I had planned a pregame party at 10, so Berit, Madeline, and Ellie showed up. We just chatted, smoked hookah, and played the drinking game Moose, which was super fun! It was like college parties... but with only 6 people :/
Around 1:30am we head to a club called Pyms, about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. In France, clubs are open from 11pm or 12am until 6-7am! So we arrive to a huge line! We get in it, feeling optimistic, and do move forward. But eventually we realized that instead of the line moving forward because people are going in, it is moving forward into a big mob that keeps pressing closer and closer. So we ended up trapped in the mob for about an hour with people pushing from all sides... They really need some velvet ropes because it was chaos!!! So we all gave up and pushed our way out feeling super angry that French people cannot manage to maintain an orderly line! Though, my mother does have an anecdote about this from our trip to Eurodisney, I had forgotten my love for straight lines until last night.
Caitlin and I were back at my place around 3, and we tried to watch a French movie but decided to sleep. And we slept until 2pm today! I don't know how, considering there was some demonstration marching through the Place a few times in the morning. We had kebabs for breakfast/lunch/snack, did some returns/window shopping, got to-go flavored lattes at Le Haricot Rouge (which was better than Starbucks!), hung out!
I also learned that there is a band that practices in the apartment above me! It's nice rock, and they sing in English (or at least I heard one English song in the stairway).
Caitlin just left to train back to Vitre, and I'm going to meet up with PA for dinner soon. The plan is to go to an international student party at a bar tonight with some assistants. Hopefully, it will turn out better than Pyms! And tomorrow I will go to a French wedding--PA's cousin. We'll miss the ceremony at the mayor's office but get to enjoy the dinner party afterwards.
Photos of fun to come! :*
But starting from the beginning: She arrived yesterday evening, and we ran to H&M to buy 80s-esque clothing in order to get free admission to an 80s themed party at a club last night. For some reason, a lot of French fashion is currently 80s revivial. I ended up with big bracelets, a lace skirt, and "reddish purple" leggings. We cooked and ate chili that tasted just like home. Then Caitlin napped and made an 80s playlist, while I cleaned up and chatted with PA.
I had planned a pregame party at 10, so Berit, Madeline, and Ellie showed up. We just chatted, smoked hookah, and played the drinking game Moose, which was super fun! It was like college parties... but with only 6 people :/
Around 1:30am we head to a club called Pyms, about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. In France, clubs are open from 11pm or 12am until 6-7am! So we arrive to a huge line! We get in it, feeling optimistic, and do move forward. But eventually we realized that instead of the line moving forward because people are going in, it is moving forward into a big mob that keeps pressing closer and closer. So we ended up trapped in the mob for about an hour with people pushing from all sides... They really need some velvet ropes because it was chaos!!! So we all gave up and pushed our way out feeling super angry that French people cannot manage to maintain an orderly line! Though, my mother does have an anecdote about this from our trip to Eurodisney, I had forgotten my love for straight lines until last night.
Caitlin and I were back at my place around 3, and we tried to watch a French movie but decided to sleep. And we slept until 2pm today! I don't know how, considering there was some demonstration marching through the Place a few times in the morning. We had kebabs for breakfast/lunch/snack, did some returns/window shopping, got to-go flavored lattes at Le Haricot Rouge (which was better than Starbucks!), hung out!
I also learned that there is a band that practices in the apartment above me! It's nice rock, and they sing in English (or at least I heard one English song in the stairway).
Caitlin just left to train back to Vitre, and I'm going to meet up with PA for dinner soon. The plan is to go to an international student party at a bar tonight with some assistants. Hopefully, it will turn out better than Pyms! And tomorrow I will go to a French wedding--PA's cousin. We'll miss the ceremony at the mayor's office but get to enjoy the dinner party afterwards.
Photos of fun to come! :*
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Fun weekend!
I had a pretty fun weekend! Friday night, Seth, Georgia, Berit, Sinead, and Pablo (a Spanish assistant), came over for drinks, bread, cheese, and pate. We listened to jazz music and just chilled. Saturday I had a visit from Caitlin, the assistant in Vitré who is from the Seattle area. We chatted, ate date balls that I made and mini-muffins she bought at Vitré, bought candy from a candy shop, ate Creole food at King Creole--very good!, watched some online tv, and exchanged some good music. After a lot of big group activities, it's good to get to know someone one-on-one. We also share a love of dancing, so we're arranging a club night on Wednesday since there is no school Thursday or Friday!
She left this morning, so now I'm working on preparing games and lessons for my classes! I want to try talking about American-French stereotypes, so that should be interesting ;) It's exciting to be doing real work! I guess I still have my American work ethic, despite my exposure to French strikes.
Here is a burning question I just reseached online: Did the French make French Toast?
She left this morning, so now I'm working on preparing games and lessons for my classes! I want to try talking about American-French stereotypes, so that should be interesting ;) It's exciting to be doing real work! I guess I still have my American work ethic, despite my exposure to French strikes.
Here is a burning question I just reseached online: Did the French make French Toast?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Hanging out
Bonjour, y’all!
My parents have passed on your compliments, so thank you very much for reading and enjoying my blog :)
I last posted yesterday afternoon. That evening, PA and I rounded up some assistants downtown to go to a bar and play some pool. French pool has smaller balls and uses only red and yellow balls plus the black 8. It’s a random difference, I know… PA and I got to hang out with Seth, Berit, Nicholas, Georgia, and Julien (who actually French and works as a moniter in a school while studying to be a geography teacher). I prefer these smaller, intimate groups for getting to know people rather than the 20+ person mess of Saturday night. It was a good group and a good mix of French and English. Julien told us about his trips to Senegal every summer; he was in the Scouts (Europeans have a ton of different Scouting organizations), and his group works in a village there. Pretty cool! PA and I got back to the apartment early and just hung out with Wajd and Philouze, our roomies, and a girl that was over. A relatively quiet but fun evening overall.
Today, I went to the school for two hours. Actually, today was another strike about the raising of the retirement age, so most professors, staff, and students were out on strike. Catherine wanted me to come in anyway to discuss my schedule and get some administrative things done. By the end of the week, I will have my timetable until Christmas holidays! I will start doing my small group classes tomorrow afternoon, and I even have a key to my classroom. Things are progressing.
I also got the keys to my apartment! My plan is to clean it up tomorrow and start moving things over bit by bit. Mostly, I need my bed, so I’ll arrange things with Julie on its transport tomorrow.
Since then, I’ve been in the apartment reading and getting emails and such done. I’m excited about fajitas for dinner, since Ma sent me a care package of flavors from home. I’m also supposed to hang out with Caely at some point, and watch How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men with Pierre-Antoine.
Oh, the exotic life of France!
My parents have passed on your compliments, so thank you very much for reading and enjoying my blog :)
I last posted yesterday afternoon. That evening, PA and I rounded up some assistants downtown to go to a bar and play some pool. French pool has smaller balls and uses only red and yellow balls plus the black 8. It’s a random difference, I know… PA and I got to hang out with Seth, Berit, Nicholas, Georgia, and Julien (who actually French and works as a moniter in a school while studying to be a geography teacher). I prefer these smaller, intimate groups for getting to know people rather than the 20+ person mess of Saturday night. It was a good group and a good mix of French and English. Julien told us about his trips to Senegal every summer; he was in the Scouts (Europeans have a ton of different Scouting organizations), and his group works in a village there. Pretty cool! PA and I got back to the apartment early and just hung out with Wajd and Philouze, our roomies, and a girl that was over. A relatively quiet but fun evening overall.
Today, I went to the school for two hours. Actually, today was another strike about the raising of the retirement age, so most professors, staff, and students were out on strike. Catherine wanted me to come in anyway to discuss my schedule and get some administrative things done. By the end of the week, I will have my timetable until Christmas holidays! I will start doing my small group classes tomorrow afternoon, and I even have a key to my classroom. Things are progressing.
I also got the keys to my apartment! My plan is to clean it up tomorrow and start moving things over bit by bit. Mostly, I need my bed, so I’ll arrange things with Julie on its transport tomorrow.
Since then, I’ve been in the apartment reading and getting emails and such done. I’m excited about fajitas for dinner, since Ma sent me a care package of flavors from home. I’m also supposed to hang out with Caely at some point, and watch How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men with Pierre-Antoine.
Oh, the exotic life of France!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Evenings out and grad school applications done
Saturday evening was pleasant. In a group of about 15 English and Spanish assistants, I ate at Place Sainte Anne in the unusually warm evening. Crêpes and wine and meeting new people while getting to know “old” (meaning I’ve met them at least once before) people better. We then went to a nearby bar that has a laundromat in it—I guess that’s a good idea, but it was a funny setting for hanging out. More assistants joined us there, and we took up basically the entire patio. I kind of got stuck in an awkward corner so it was hard to follow conversations and such… I was also sleepy from the wine. I left before 11 to head back to the apartment.
None of the roommates were in, so I listened to my iTunes and found some college friends on facebook to catch up with, Lin Lin and Daniel. After they had to go study or eat dinner or whatever, I watched an episode of ER and finally made myself go to sleep.
Sunday morning I slept late, but then became very productive! I submitted one graduate school application to American University, and I finished the rest except for inputting the name of one recommender that I am waiting to hear from. I am applying to MA International Affairs/Relations/Studies programs at American, George Washington University, University of Chicago, and University of Denver for next year. Depending on which school I go to, I will be doing either US Foreign Policy or African studies! Hopefully, all four applications will be submitted in this next week, and I can stop fretting over it.
After that, I started working on a powerpoint about Tennessee and Knoxville to present to my students when I start my classes. If any of you have lesson plan ideas, please send them my way! I’m planning on covering holidays, the school system, music, anything I think of!
I’ve hit a block in working, so I’m going to take a break now. Sundays in France are so boring! No stores are open, not even grocery stores! Just some cafés and restaurants, but I don't want to spend money to be alone at them. Luckily, PA will be back from his Normandy trip at 7:30 tonight. And I don’t have work until Tuesday at 12:30, can you believe it? I need to find some hobbies, like a yoga studio, ASAP! Or if I had my apartment, I could be working on setting it up.
All in good time...
None of the roommates were in, so I listened to my iTunes and found some college friends on facebook to catch up with, Lin Lin and Daniel. After they had to go study or eat dinner or whatever, I watched an episode of ER and finally made myself go to sleep.
Sunday morning I slept late, but then became very productive! I submitted one graduate school application to American University, and I finished the rest except for inputting the name of one recommender that I am waiting to hear from. I am applying to MA International Affairs/Relations/Studies programs at American, George Washington University, University of Chicago, and University of Denver for next year. Depending on which school I go to, I will be doing either US Foreign Policy or African studies! Hopefully, all four applications will be submitted in this next week, and I can stop fretting over it.
After that, I started working on a powerpoint about Tennessee and Knoxville to present to my students when I start my classes. If any of you have lesson plan ideas, please send them my way! I’m planning on covering holidays, the school system, music, anything I think of!
I’ve hit a block in working, so I’m going to take a break now. Sundays in France are so boring! No stores are open, not even grocery stores! Just some cafés and restaurants, but I don't want to spend money to be alone at them. Luckily, PA will be back from his Normandy trip at 7:30 tonight. And I don’t have work until Tuesday at 12:30, can you believe it? I need to find some hobbies, like a yoga studio, ASAP! Or if I had my apartment, I could be working on setting it up.
All in good time...
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Shopping and notes on the Breton language
NOTE: I think I managed to change the blog language to English, so posting comments should be easier for you anglophones ;)
Saturday has been quiet for the most part. I slept in, made a pot of potato soup for myself, and watched How I Met Your Mother in French. After lunch, I got dressed to go out and profit from the warmth and sun that decided to pay Brittany a visit for the weekend. I stopped in Eurodif, a clothes and home goods store, only to find that there was a huge sale going on! I bought towels and rugs pretty damn cheaply, but since I don’t have the keys to my apartment yet, I didn’t want to go overboard. Yet, now I’m considering heading back and getting sheets and other supplies so that I can save money later… It’ll just be annoying to move things eventually.
I talked to my parents for about an hour in the afternoon just to catch up on things. Plus, PA texted me throughout the day to comment on the student group he is assisting with; they’re getting lectures on historical things in little Norman cities from the prof with the group. His job is mostly to herd them on when they stop to take pictures.
Dinner with assistants tonight at 7 at Creperie Ste-Anne, right below my future apartment! Hopefully, I’ll get to know some more people so that I’ll have things to do on these quiet weekends.
Also, if you are considering visiting me, I work Tuesday-Friday, but I may be able to arrange long weekends if I change my hours. And here is my vacation schedule:
-Vacances de la Toussaint: Saturday 23 October to Wednesday 3 November
-Vacances de Noël (Christmas): Saturday 18 December to Sunday 2 January (though I’m already planning to spend New Year’s with friends)
-Vacances d'hiver (Winter): Saturday 26 February to Sunday 13 March
-Vacances de Printemps (Spring): Saturday 23 April to 7 June, when I leave for the States
It has been awhile since my last cultural lesson, so today I’ll introduce you to the language of Breton! Yes, Brittany has its own Gaelic-derivative language, and there are even some schools where Breton is still taught. Here is the information that I have gleaned for you:
“Breton is spoken in Lower Brittany [which means farther west on the peninsula than where I am]…It comes from a Celtic language community between Great Britain and Armorica (present-day Brittany), and even Galicia. It was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century. However, afterwards it was only the language of the people of West Brittany (Breizh Izel), while the nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French. As a written language, the Duchy of Brittany used Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a limited tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton…
“Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken as an everyday language by about 200,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and a rapid decline since with only small handfuls of elderly monolingual speakers as of 2009. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Breizh izel, of which about 190,000 were aged 60 or over…
“Few of those of the 15-19 year-old age group spoke Breton, which is now considered to be an endangered language…In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion. In 2010, 13,391 students (about 1.48% of all students in Brittany) attended Diwan, Div Yezh and Dihun schools, a number rapidly growing yearly… There are also schools in secondary education (collèges and lycées) offering courses of Breton (given as either foreign language or option, instead of e.g. German, Spanish, ...), and there are about 5,000 pupils in the universities in Brittany who take this option. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_language)”
Just wandering around town, you will notice that all road/street/information signs are in French and Breton, including all of the city names:
Visitors to Brittany may encounter words and phrases (especially on signs and posters) such as the following:
There is even a minor separatist movement that lives on in Brittany that wants to leave France. I’m sure that will never happen, but it was exploited by the Nazis during WWII who encouraged any subversive actions against the French government. I’ll explain this further in another post!
I've bought myself a big Brittany flag to hang in my apartment too:
Saturday has been quiet for the most part. I slept in, made a pot of potato soup for myself, and watched How I Met Your Mother in French. After lunch, I got dressed to go out and profit from the warmth and sun that decided to pay Brittany a visit for the weekend. I stopped in Eurodif, a clothes and home goods store, only to find that there was a huge sale going on! I bought towels and rugs pretty damn cheaply, but since I don’t have the keys to my apartment yet, I didn’t want to go overboard. Yet, now I’m considering heading back and getting sheets and other supplies so that I can save money later… It’ll just be annoying to move things eventually.
I talked to my parents for about an hour in the afternoon just to catch up on things. Plus, PA texted me throughout the day to comment on the student group he is assisting with; they’re getting lectures on historical things in little Norman cities from the prof with the group. His job is mostly to herd them on when they stop to take pictures.
Dinner with assistants tonight at 7 at Creperie Ste-Anne, right below my future apartment! Hopefully, I’ll get to know some more people so that I’ll have things to do on these quiet weekends.
Also, if you are considering visiting me, I work Tuesday-Friday, but I may be able to arrange long weekends if I change my hours. And here is my vacation schedule:
-Vacances de la Toussaint: Saturday 23 October to Wednesday 3 November
-Vacances de Noël (Christmas): Saturday 18 December to Sunday 2 January (though I’m already planning to spend New Year’s with friends)
-Vacances d'hiver (Winter): Saturday 26 February to Sunday 13 March
-Vacances de Printemps (Spring): Saturday 23 April to 7 June, when I leave for the States
It has been awhile since my last cultural lesson, so today I’ll introduce you to the language of Breton! Yes, Brittany has its own Gaelic-derivative language, and there are even some schools where Breton is still taught. Here is the information that I have gleaned for you:
“Breton is spoken in Lower Brittany [which means farther west on the peninsula than where I am]…It comes from a Celtic language community between Great Britain and Armorica (present-day Brittany), and even Galicia. It was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century. However, afterwards it was only the language of the people of West Brittany (Breizh Izel), while the nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French. As a written language, the Duchy of Brittany used Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a limited tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton…
“Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken as an everyday language by about 200,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and a rapid decline since with only small handfuls of elderly monolingual speakers as of 2009. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Breizh izel, of which about 190,000 were aged 60 or over…
“Few of those of the 15-19 year-old age group spoke Breton, which is now considered to be an endangered language…In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion. In 2010, 13,391 students (about 1.48% of all students in Brittany) attended Diwan, Div Yezh and Dihun schools, a number rapidly growing yearly… There are also schools in secondary education (collèges and lycées) offering courses of Breton (given as either foreign language or option, instead of e.g. German, Spanish, ...), and there are about 5,000 pupils in the universities in Brittany who take this option. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_language)”
Just wandering around town, you will notice that all road/street/information signs are in French and Breton, including all of the city names:
 |
| Bilingual signage in Quimper/Kemper. |
Breton | English |
degemer mat | welcome |
deuet mat oc'h | you're welcome |
Breizh | Brittany |
brezhoneg | Breton (language) |
ti, "ty" | house |
ti-kêr | town hall |
kreiz-kêr | town centre |
da bep lec'h | all directions |
skol | school |
skol-veur | university |
bagad | pipe band (nearly) |
fest-noz | lit. "night fête", a fest deiz or "day fête" also exists |
kenavo | goodbye |
krampouezh | pancakes (a pancake = ur grampouezhenn) |
chistr | cider |
chouchenn | Breton mead |
yec'hed mat | Cheers! |
war vor atao | always at sea |
kouign amann | rich butter and sugar cake |
There is even a minor separatist movement that lives on in Brittany that wants to leave France. I’m sure that will never happen, but it was exploited by the Nazis during WWII who encouraged any subversive actions against the French government. I’ll explain this further in another post!
I've bought myself a big Brittany flag to hang in my apartment too:
Friday, October 8, 2010
Paperwork... DONE!
I spent a nice Thursday evening out. I took Pierre-Antoine to the Japanese restaurant Fuji where we shared potstickers, sushi, and fried chicken bits. We were craving sweet afterwards, so we went to a place called Le Haricot Rouge (The Red Bean). They are famous for their hot chocolate with flavors added and their authentic XVIIth century chocolate. I took Le Spécial that had cinnamon, caramel, and pistachio added with whipped cream on top! PA had a delicious moeulleux de chocolat—a denser, darker brownie than in the US. And yes, we ate outside in the not-too-chilly evening.
We left there about 8:45 to meet our groups for the night. He was going to a party of classmates in his current American studies master, and I was meeting other English assistants at Melody Maker, a bar that plays cool rock music right around the corner from Sainte Anne. Caely and Emma were there when I arrived, and I had a Saint Benoît beer (light but hoppy) with them. Later came Marie and Berit. We compared school working environments and gave each other tips on the paperwork to be done in addition to just chatting. Reminding myself that others are having the same difficulties as me makes me feel so much better—that sounds weird, but I just feel less alone when I hear an assistant voice the same concerns and then listen to everyone’s ideas on how to solve the problem. I also learned about a bunch of group activities for the weekend, so I might be visiting the Saturday market, the art museum, and an assistant dinner at the crêperie under my apartment!
I have no work today, so I spent the morning taking care of social security and free transport. I got lost finding the Caisse première d’assurance maladie where I had to go for social security/basic health insurance. I just handed the woman all the papers I had, and she sorted through all of it to make my dossier. So now I get reimbursed for around 75% of medical expenses and medicines!
Then, I went to a community center to get free transport since I make less than €976 a month. The woman at the information desk kept saying that I couldn’t get it if I hadn’t lived in Rennes for a year already, but I told her that I knew another language assistant who just did it and insisted on talking to someone else. The next woman was much nicer; she took my work contract, passport, and address and charged my Carte Korrigo for six months of free metro and bus!
So the morning was a productive success! Even though I probably said very dumb things in French, everyone understood me enough to put everything together, and that is a very nice feeling.
Now that all my paperwork is done, I hardly know what to do with myself! Since PA has afternoon classes, maybe I’ll just go downtown with my FREE transport card and wander around :) Or maybe God will smile down on me some more, and I’ll get the phone call to pick up my apartment keys!
PA is going to Normandy for the weekend, escorting students to the Bayeux Tapestry and the World War II memorial in Caen. I have thus lined up some activities with the assistants. Should be busy... I hope!
We left there about 8:45 to meet our groups for the night. He was going to a party of classmates in his current American studies master, and I was meeting other English assistants at Melody Maker, a bar that plays cool rock music right around the corner from Sainte Anne. Caely and Emma were there when I arrived, and I had a Saint Benoît beer (light but hoppy) with them. Later came Marie and Berit. We compared school working environments and gave each other tips on the paperwork to be done in addition to just chatting. Reminding myself that others are having the same difficulties as me makes me feel so much better—that sounds weird, but I just feel less alone when I hear an assistant voice the same concerns and then listen to everyone’s ideas on how to solve the problem. I also learned about a bunch of group activities for the weekend, so I might be visiting the Saturday market, the art museum, and an assistant dinner at the crêperie under my apartment!
I have no work today, so I spent the morning taking care of social security and free transport. I got lost finding the Caisse première d’assurance maladie where I had to go for social security/basic health insurance. I just handed the woman all the papers I had, and she sorted through all of it to make my dossier. So now I get reimbursed for around 75% of medical expenses and medicines!
Then, I went to a community center to get free transport since I make less than €976 a month. The woman at the information desk kept saying that I couldn’t get it if I hadn’t lived in Rennes for a year already, but I told her that I knew another language assistant who just did it and insisted on talking to someone else. The next woman was much nicer; she took my work contract, passport, and address and charged my Carte Korrigo for six months of free metro and bus!
So the morning was a productive success! Even though I probably said very dumb things in French, everyone understood me enough to put everything together, and that is a very nice feeling.
Now that all my paperwork is done, I hardly know what to do with myself! Since PA has afternoon classes, maybe I’ll just go downtown with my FREE transport card and wander around :) Or maybe God will smile down on me some more, and I’ll get the phone call to pick up my apartment keys!
PA is going to Normandy for the weekend, escorting students to the Bayeux Tapestry and the World War II memorial in Caen. I have thus lined up some activities with the assistants. Should be busy... I hope!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Observation and frustration... Followed by fun!
This blog seems to be turning into a daily journal… so don’t feel obligated to read all the mundane details of my life. I think living abroad makes every little problem or success more dramatic by virtue of it being dealt with in French and by myself. So sorry for the silliness I may describe.
Yesterday, I went to school for three hours in the afternoon to sit in on three classes. Once again I had to present myself, answer questions, and talk a little about Tennessee and Knoxville with Google images to aid me. Two of the classes were terminale (last year of high school) comprised of electricians who have just returned from month-long internships in businesses as varied as home electricians to maintenance in hospitals. It was cool to hear their stories of work and see that they do know some English already.
One class was listing what they wanted to discuss with me when I have my own classes, and one guy mentioned basketball. I told them I watch a lot of basketball, so they asked my favorite team—the Lakers! That earned me some grins :)
After the three hours, I was definitely tired from looking attentive and deciphering broken English. I also had to bring financial forms to the secretary to set up my automatic salary payment—I should get 80% of my salary at the end of this month instead to having to wait until the end of November.
Then, I went downtown to drop off PA’s rent check at his agency and stop by my agency to see the status of my apartment. Now that we had a snafu with the last financial guarantor, the agent wanted to talk to them first. I had to convince her that it was all set up and that she should send the paperwork right away. Hopefully, it will all be done by this weekend; I am to await her phone call to get my keys. It was a rather frustrating afternoon.
I met PA back at the apartment and enjoyed a healthy dinner of delivery pizza (ham, egg, potato as toppings!) and brownies that I made from a packet (denser and darker than ones in the US). Around 9:30, I texted some assistants to go to a hookah bar downtown. So me, PA, Seth, Georgia, Caely, and Carolyn (who is placed in St. Malo) enjoyed Melon and Lemon-Mint hookahs and sugary mint tea. I really love this group of assistants—it makes the stresses of work and paperwork easier to bear when I can joke around with them afterwards. Well, and Pierre-Antoine helps a lot too ;)
Also, I finally found some peanut butter here… in the foreign food aisle with burrito kits and teriyaki sauces!
Today, I am going into work for an hour to just hang out with another English teacher, Laetitia, and see some more of the workshops. Catherine is busy the rest of the week, so we’ll see if I have much more to do.
I’ll also put up some photos of the school that I’ve taken! I’m so lazy about doing that :/
Yesterday, I went to school for three hours in the afternoon to sit in on three classes. Once again I had to present myself, answer questions, and talk a little about Tennessee and Knoxville with Google images to aid me. Two of the classes were terminale (last year of high school) comprised of electricians who have just returned from month-long internships in businesses as varied as home electricians to maintenance in hospitals. It was cool to hear their stories of work and see that they do know some English already.
One class was listing what they wanted to discuss with me when I have my own classes, and one guy mentioned basketball. I told them I watch a lot of basketball, so they asked my favorite team—the Lakers! That earned me some grins :)
After the three hours, I was definitely tired from looking attentive and deciphering broken English. I also had to bring financial forms to the secretary to set up my automatic salary payment—I should get 80% of my salary at the end of this month instead to having to wait until the end of November.
Then, I went downtown to drop off PA’s rent check at his agency and stop by my agency to see the status of my apartment. Now that we had a snafu with the last financial guarantor, the agent wanted to talk to them first. I had to convince her that it was all set up and that she should send the paperwork right away. Hopefully, it will all be done by this weekend; I am to await her phone call to get my keys. It was a rather frustrating afternoon.
I met PA back at the apartment and enjoyed a healthy dinner of delivery pizza (ham, egg, potato as toppings!) and brownies that I made from a packet (denser and darker than ones in the US). Around 9:30, I texted some assistants to go to a hookah bar downtown. So me, PA, Seth, Georgia, Caely, and Carolyn (who is placed in St. Malo) enjoyed Melon and Lemon-Mint hookahs and sugary mint tea. I really love this group of assistants—it makes the stresses of work and paperwork easier to bear when I can joke around with them afterwards. Well, and Pierre-Antoine helps a lot too ;)
Also, I finally found some peanut butter here… in the foreign food aisle with burrito kits and teriyaki sauces!
Today, I am going into work for an hour to just hang out with another English teacher, Laetitia, and see some more of the workshops. Catherine is busy the rest of the week, so we’ll see if I have much more to do.
I’ll also put up some photos of the school that I’ve taken! I’m so lazy about doing that :/
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Ces soirées-là (Oh What a Night)
Yesterday, PA went to Vitré for his basketball practice/game this weekend, and I stayed in Rennes
I think I’m still rather stressed out here in general… Just having to deal in French. Like this morning I had to go to a laundromat where I had to decipher the machines and systems just to get my laundry done. I ended up jamming the payment machine with a 5 euro bill (which was recovered by a woman half an hour later who gave it back to me) and had to go to the Subway next door to beg for coins to use. I eventually asked some guys for help on how everything worked and that solved my problems.
I really do need to get better about using my French confidently and asking for help from strangers. One of the other assistants stopped to ask a woman for directions on the street yesterday and ended up with an apartment at a good price! Lucky break!
Today, I looked at more apartment announcements, but since it is the weekend, I cannot really contact anyone. I found a PERFECT place that the individual was selling herself (as opposed to an agency), so I did try to call and email her. I hope I can get it because it is gorgeous, furnished, and in a perfect location! *fingers crossed*
I was just invited to crepes for dinner made by Alexandre, but I am headed downtown again tonight after organizing another assistants’ night out via a massive facebook and text recruiting campaign. I have one confirmed for dinner, and three interested in drinks afterwards. I hope to convince everyone to go to O’Connells for Irish beer—oh, Smithicks/Kilkenny, how I miss you!
Until tomorrow my faithful followers!
I think I’m still rather stressed out here in general… Just having to deal in French. Like this morning I had to go to a laundromat where I had to decipher the machines and systems just to get my laundry done. I ended up jamming the payment machine with a 5 euro bill (which was recovered by a woman half an hour later who gave it back to me) and had to go to the Subway next door to beg for coins to use. I eventually asked some guys for help on how everything worked and that solved my problems.
I really do need to get better about using my French confidently and asking for help from strangers. One of the other assistants stopped to ask a woman for directions on the street yesterday and ended up with an apartment at a good price! Lucky break!
Today, I looked at more apartment announcements, but since it is the weekend, I cannot really contact anyone. I found a PERFECT place that the individual was selling herself (as opposed to an agency), so I did try to call and email her. I hope I can get it because it is gorgeous, furnished, and in a perfect location! *fingers crossed*
I was just invited to crepes for dinner made by Alexandre, but I am headed downtown again tonight after organizing another assistants’ night out via a massive facebook and text recruiting campaign. I have one confirmed for dinner, and three interested in drinks afterwards. I hope to convince everyone to go to O’Connells for Irish beer—oh, Smithicks/Kilkenny, how I miss you!
Until tomorrow my faithful followers!
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