Little notes...

1. French fashion among the youth, as observed by me. Boys are really into "Official U.S. Marshal" sweatshirts and college gear from UCLA or Franklin and Marshall, the latter of which is apparently marketed by an Italian designer. Girls wear tights, heels, and scarves for all occasions. Girls hair is usually like long and faux-messy.

2. Children don't know how to be silly in English class. My lesson for this week was for students to bring up life problems and ask the class for good, bad, and ugly (the worst) advice. All of them took it so seriously! No creativity! The only smile I got was a girl's problem being "I'm too blond," but the advice was run-of-the-mill "Dye it, don't dye it, go more blonde." Boo!

3. Tiramisus are time-consuming. For his birthday, PA wanted my tiramisu but without the coffee liqueur flavoring--so basically creamy goo on lady fingers with chocolate shavings on top. It took over an hour to make, but it is super creamy due to the whole French milk I had to use ;)

My homemade tiramisu with chocolate shavings on top!

PA enjoyed his birthday gift :)

 4. My friend Allison is wise. This is an excerpt from her blog:
The right way for you to live simply might indeed be to trim down purchases and go through all that stuff lying around. Or maybe it’s deciding to buy fair trade foods and clothing. Perhaps, though, it doesn’t even have to do with money at all. Thomas Kelly is again quoted, this time about simplifying the way we use our time: “Too many of us have too many irons in the fire. We get distracted by...our interest in a thousand and one good things...simplicity needs to be expressed not merely in the dress and architecture and the height of tombstones but also in...opposition to the hurried, superficial tendencies of our age.”
(I certainly have no simplification problems in France...)

5. I am going to freak out next fall when I am in school and working! I do nothing here!!! I'm only working eight hours this week--three hours cancelled and one was written wrong on my timetable so I missed it--and there is not much filling up my spare time. My fellow assistants and I discuss this all the time here, and maybe the emptiness of time is what I will end up feeling nostalgic for...

Sunshine!

This week has been gorgeous! Weather in the 60's!!! I picnicked with Katherine on Tuesday--baguette, cheese, dried sausage, rosé wine, strawberries--and enjoyed laying on the grass in the sun all afternoon. Yesterday, I went for a long walk downtown and took my time running errands outside. Today I had my apartment windows open all morning and then held one of my afternoon classes outside! I hope that's not against the rules or anything... ;)

The warm weather has lifted my spirits immensely! If the entire year had been this nice, I probably would have whined a lot less--and I'm VERY scared about wintering in DC next year :/ Snow is cold!

That's all I wanted to say: I'm warm and happy at the moment.

Saturday is PA's 25th birthday! Send him good wishes :)

Only 20 Workdays left!

Golly gee whiz! As the title says, only 20 workdays left! I will be quite relieved because right now my schedule is a wreck... and it changes every other day :/ It's an odd mix of old and new groups, plus some teachers are (just now after five months) giving me assignments to work on with their classes... It's rather frustrating to have everything change so much in the home stretch--but it will all be done soon!

At least today I had my favorite group EVER!!! The prof gave me these girls for two hours straight to prepare for their final oral exam. They will have to present themselves, talk about their internships (since it's a professional school, they have work placement periods), and then present a document, all in about 15 minutes. Without warning, I had to help them write out blurbs about themselves and their work to turn in to their prof, and then I had to dash to a computer to print articles for practice document work!

Since all of that was boring--and we had two hours to kill--we also played some games :) The girls were pretty good at English and all very sweet. They're actually all going to be preschool teachers! And they actually asked me questions and tried to get to know me! I hope I keep working with them!

What else have I done this week...? Caitlin and Katherine were around on Wednesday, our day off, for H&M shopping, walking in the blooming park, and chillin' in a café with GIANT chocolate cookies. It was almost like being at Panera or ABC.

Thursday, of course, was St. Patty's Day, so I was at PA's apartment party that then bar-hopped for the evening... I was home around 1am so I could sleep for work the next day. It's still so awkward to be at French people parties. I always feel a bit paralyzed--though I understand what is going on around me, I can't move or speak fast enough to take part.

I'm also VERY angry with the New York Times for charging for online access. Jerks! I guess they need to make money somehow, but I'll just be a poor student who doesn't know what is going on in the world now!

PA just left for KFC-ing with friends and going home for the weekend. I'll be joined by Caitlin and Katherine tomorrow morning to go to the market and hang about. Fingers crossed for a nice day!

Valentine's Week!

The week was pretty chill... Lots of hanging out with PA, and Caitlin even came over Wednesday night for dinner out! :)

All week I've been doing a Valentine's lesson with my classes. For the first part, I hand out conversation hearts (courtesy of Ma) for them to try--then they have to come up with five new heart messages in order to get a second candy! I have thus learned that treats are a great motivator ;)

The next part is the question, "What are the advantages of being single or in a relationship?" I write their answers on the board, and boy, are they interesting! Here is one class's answers (they were all boys, and I was the one who suggested "love," fyi):

 

Another class of all boys suggested these:

SINGLE
-more calm
-play video games
-freedom
-can go out

IN A RELATIONSHIP
-love (which I again wrote)
-change facebook status
-spend money (I assume on gifts/dates)
-celebrate Valentine's Day

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Today I also tried to make peanut M&M cookies, but I didn't realize that I used salted butter, so they were a bit salty :/ Baking fail... My skillz are wasting away here!

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 ;)

Holidays! Starting in St Malo!

Wow, a week to catch up on now! My last classes this term went well--we played a taboo-esque game that the kids enjoyed. It was kind of sad since I won't be working with these classes anymore--I have a whole new schedule for January and February. I just hope I did some good!

Then Friday was a bit of an adventure. I had to go to the immigration office for a medical exam so I could get my official residence permit. I ended up seeing five other assistants there at the same time! The process was very quick, one of the most efficient things I've seen in France or elsewhere: chest xray, immunization record, eye exam, height/weight, brief medical history, listen to lungs, check xray, blood pressure. All of this in three rooms in a hallway in under an hour! Bravo! I got my OFII sticker in my passport and immediately had a copy sent to the office for my housing assistance money. All paperwork taken care of, I'm legal!

So Katherine joined up with my afterwards and we headed to the train station to pick up Herbert, an assistant in Quimper who was coming in for an afternoon immigration appointment. He is from Louisianna, and I had talked to him on facebook before, so he asked me to be his Rennes tour guide for the day. For the morning, we walked all around the center city, ate tartines for lunch, and let him buy a jar of Mississippi Belle peanut butter at my grocery store--apparently, I'm lucky they stock it!

He headed off to his appointment, and I saw PA for a bit. When Herbert was done, it was snowing like crazy, so I took him to Le Haricot Rouge for hot chocolate and a few hours of warm, cozy conversation. They were even playing a Black Eyed Peas album, so we rocked out to that. The crowning moment of the day was the lights show at the mairie; Rennes literally projects lights onto the mayor's building in an awesome Disney-esque animation show! I'll film it sometime soon because it is every night until Janurary 2. Then poor Herbert had a 40 minute train delay! Still, he picked a good day to visit Rennes!

Saturday was a real French adventure! Katherine and I took the train to St. Malo, a walled coastal city. Even though we had slush under our feet and rain coming down on our heads, we trekked into the old city and took tons of pictures of the buildings, walls, beaches, sea! At one point, we realized that music was coming from speakers on every street corner--from Christmas carols to Rhianna! Cute or creepy? The jury is still out on that one...

Marina at the approach to the city gates.

Islands and swimming area off of St. Malo.

We had a delicious three course lunch of warm goat cheese salad, lamb and mashed potatos, and chocolate crepes. In the afternoon, the weather turned around and we had blue skies and beautiful light. We returned to the walls and walked around half the city on them, admiring the adorableness of it all. We also did a fair bit of shopping at the Christmas market (where I spent about 50 euros...) and in all the shops and enjoyed some warm, spiced wine.

Drinking warm wine!

St. Malo Christmas Market.

After a coffee and warmth break at a bar/cafe, we hit the streets again and saw a ton more people out! This led us to believe that the people of St Malo are vampires... ;) So more shopping, seeing the house of the Duchess of Anne, trying the Breton specialty butter cake, and walking the other half of the walls was on the late afternoon agenda. The lighting at the snowy beach was incredible! Just admire these photos below (and all of the ones in my Rennes Winter album) to get an idea.

We had a last cup of tea/chocolate in a classy salon du thé facing the cathedral before we had to trek back to the train station through the ice. It was a gorgeous day in a cute city full of lots of good food! A nice way to start off a holiday break.

Today I'm in the apartment resting, nursing my cold, maybe even cleaning a bit! Everyone is scattering for break, so I'll be entertaining myself for the most part. Skype me!

A cute festive touch at the St Malo market^^

Still alive :)

Hello all!

This has been a rather productive week so far. All Christmas cards mailed, lessons finished for this and next week, and the last grad school applications submitted to Columbia and Tufts! I'm just trying to get everything in order since I will be in Copenhagen from Thursday to late Sunday night.

This week I'm doing a lesson on music from Tennessee because even our state quarter celebrates it! The kids listen to blues, Elvis, Paramore, country, rap, and Justin Timberlake--all from TN. We do a fill-in-the-missing-words game with "Blue Suede Shoes" and then play a game where they listen for certain words in Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and grab the card of the word when they hear it--the winner is the one with the most cards at the end. The latter gets rather competitive/violent!

TN state quarter

Othewise, it's life as usual here in Rennes. The snow has turned back into rain, but it is still super cold. I still have two paperwork snafus to sort out before the holidays, but life is good :)

Ugh!

So today was not so good. In one class, I sent one student away. Then in my last half of the last class of the day, I took EVERYONE back to the professor.

What happened was that I was walking them from their classroom to mine; I unlocked the door and walked in, and only four out of nine students showed up. I looked out in the hall to see the rest just hanging out, two on their cell phones. I tried to good-naturedly herd them into my room. Once there, I realized that they had brought an extra girl with them! So these kids are talking on phones, talking to each other, talking to a random girl. I decided to scrap my Thanksgiving lesson for a round of Tongue Twisters to get everyone to pay attention to me--three did it, some ignored me, some told me they couldn't read.

So I took all of them back up to their teacher and told her what happened. She sent me back down with the four on-time kids and kept the rest. I was so pissed, I was shaking!

So with only four, it was much quieter, so we proceeded with the Thanksgiving lesson, which they all did well on. Then, the teacher showed up again with the rest who apologized and sat down quietly. I gave them paper and had them draw hand turkeys because I didn't know what else to do with them.

I talked to the prof afterwards who said to just send one or two to the disciplinary office next time as examples. She also said that it wasn't just me, that they are horrible with everyone. They actually told her that they did not understand what they did wrong and why I was upset!!!! That is ridiculous--how about they did EVERTHING wrong! I really could never be a grade school teacher because these kids are so disrespectful. They told their teacher that my classes are interesting, but they certainly didn't act interested in them!

So that's my rant on discipline... and on people who are not nice to others.

Classes

At school on Wednesday, English prof Laetitia took me to the library (very small) and the graphic arts studios to see the graphic design labs full of fancy Macs and the huge printing presses. Very impressive. I then sat in on a class of secondes (sophomores) taught by the intern Julie. The kids are a bit high-strung but good-hearted. For a change, I just observed them working on a letter filling in the correct verb tenses.

I chatted with her for a bit after class—she worked in London and in Ireland, so she has a twinge of an Irish accent. She just moved so she has an extra bed oven she is giving me for free! So lucky! Catherine also got me two chairs so far, and PA’s mom has things in the basement I can take too!

Made delicious Altruda’s lemon chicken for dinner and spent the evening watching PA’s dvds of ER or Urgences as it was called in France. Apparently, it was super popular here! We switch between English and the French dubbing.

It’s a bit annoying to still live out in Villejean and not in the center. While the metro is fast, it makes one feel tired just to have to travel like that… at least I think so. I’ll get over it eventually, I suppose.

Today, I went to school at 10:30 and found the English professors in the teacher’s lounge (I get to hang out there and use the teacher’s bathrooms, lucky me!). Corrine took me to her 10:40 class where I did a bit of introduction and then listened to them do mock conversations—it was a very nice class of girls studying to be secretaries. I had a lunch break, so I walked back to the apartment (10-15 minutes) to eat with PA.

I had another class at 1:30 with Gael who told her students (also a class of just girls) to ask me questions all class. I sat in the front of the room and waited for them to formulate questions from “Where are you from?” to “What do you like about French culture?”—it was usually a team effort to piece together vocabulary and grammar correctly. One side of the room got rowdy, and the prof kicked one student out. Then, she asked me to leave because their behavior was deteriorating. That was kind of awkward, but they are very strict on discipline here. All the teachers have made it clear that I will not have to put up with misbehavior. I guess they are already weeding out which students won’t get to have time with me.

I grabbed a coffee from the teacher’s lounge machine to pass the time until my 2:30 class with Karen. It was the usual presentation and question session at the beginning. Then, the students got down to working on description words, doing book exercises for the most part. They too were a bit high-strung, so I felt bad for distracting them with my presence. Afterwards, I talked to all the profs, and they suggested that I not tell my age or that I speak French so that the students will respect me more. We shall see if that works… Either way, I am currently frustrated with not knowing what is going on. I can’t wait until I’m settled into a schedule and can plan my own lessons. I like being in control.

Today was actually a nice day in Rennes with no rain, some sun, and only a light jacket necessary. After work, I metro-ed downtown and waited in line at the transport office to get a Carte Korrigo that works unlimited on all the metro and buses of Rennes for a monthly fee. Tomorrow I will go to the Centre d’Action Sociale which will provide me with free transport on the card since I make less than 1,000 euros a month. I also have to go register for Social Security ASAP, but that office is literally next door to the CAS! Hopefully, I will work in a block in the morning or afternoon and so have time to get everything done before 5.

As for this evening, I have a rendez-vous with some assistants at a bar downtown, and PA has the same with some people in his classes. I can’t wait to go out and just chill.

Thanks to Ma and Aunt Cathy for the care package—very nice!

Much love,
L