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

I'M ON FRENCH TV!

A camera crew came to our assistant orientation day on Monday to film/interview us. You can see me in the front row in a blue jacket in the story's stock footage! Go to 3:45.

http://info.francetelevisions.fr/video-info/index-fr.php?id-video=cafe_cafe1_HD_1850_rennes_locale_041010_244_04102010194927_F3

Cool, huh? It's like on my Africa study abroad when I was in a Namibian newspaper, on South African radio, and on Botswana tv!!!

Photos of my school from the metro platform

Basketball courts and dorms.

Cafeteria, classroom buildings, administration building.

Courtyard.

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 :/

Orientation day

Today was the orientation day for all of the language assistants in this départment (county) of Ille-et-Vilaine. I had to brave the pouring rain to get to a nearby high school (one metro stop and a 10 minute walk) at 9:30. Everyone was soaking wet and FREEZING! They haven’t turned on the heat yet, and it’s so chilly! In the 60s and rainy :/

Some stats from the meeting today to share:
-227 language assistants (English, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese) in Brittany.
-5,600+ assistants in France this year.
-Brittany makes 40% of France’s milk.
-Brittany provides 55% of France’s pork.
-Brittany accounts for 45% of France’s fishing industry.
-Brittany is mostly rural with 70,000 agricultural workers but also hosts many high-tech industries.
-Brittany has a population of 3 million, which is 5% of France’s population.
-The Académie de Rennes has the best student retention rates of the country and is among the highest in baccalaureat scores (the final exam French high school students take).

The morning was spent hearing welcoming speeches from all the top officials and language inspectors of the region. A news crew actually showed up, so I’ll probably be on French tv (because I was sitting front and center) and maybe even in the Ouest France newspaper! After that excitement was done, we got info on all the forms we have to fill out to get paid, get our residence permits, get social security, get free transportation, get housing aid… There is so much paperwork in France—that stereotype is definitely true! I have to go take identity photos and copy my passport, birth certificate, and work papers for all of these things.

After shivering in the drafty amphitheater for hours, we had a free, hot lunch in the school cafeteria—with a main course of a pork and veggie skewer, it was definitely higher quality than US public school food. I ended up at a table with Germans, Spaniards, and an Austrian. The common language was French, but I heard them talk amongst themselves as well. We had to play the “Where are you from? Why are you here? Where are you teaching?” questions game, so no cultural insights there for today. And after that we moved to a classroom for coffee, cookies, and more conversation.

The afternoon orientation session was split by languages, so I was with Americans, Irish, and Brits for info on what we are actually doing as assistants. Basically, we need to encourage oral expression as much as possible, so we need to be creative! You can take an advertisement and turn it into a lesson on cultural stereotypes. You have to give them vocab and then give them an opportunity to use it, particularly in comparing their culture with yours. As assistants, we are proof that the language they study is alive and useful. We even give credibility to the scenes they have seen in American movies. It’s really quite cool :)

Tomorrow I will go to the agency to inquire as to the status of my apartment, and maybe I’ll even get the keys! Then, I have to go to work at 1:30 for one class and not again until (maybe) Friday. That gives me two days at least to set up my apartment and go bed shopping.

Bisous!

Solutions

Phew! What a nail-biting weekend!

I would like to announce to you all that I once again have a home! I found a financial guarantor, and I will most likely get my keys by this weekend. The next challenge is buying a bed and getting it there… :/ Pictures ASAP! And visitors ALWAYS welcome!

This weekend was fun, showing Deepa around town in the constant rain of Brittany. We ate a lot of crepes and shopped. Last night we met Seth, Georgia (an assistant from London), Nicholas (asst. from NC), Megan (an au pair from Ohio), and Jackie (a Spanish asst. from Guatemala) for bar-hopping! Cool people, fun times! Possible yoga buddies if we can find a good studio in town.

Deepa just left to return to Rouen, and I’m waiting for PA to come back from Vitré—his basketball team won again against Fougères Saturday night! Tomorrow is my orientation day with all the assistants of all languages in this department of Ille-et-Vilaine (like a county). Then, I go into work at my school on Tuesday!

School visits and some trouble in paradise

Sorry for the delay in postings, but this has been a very busy, stressful and rainy few days. On Thursday afternoon I went to my school for a meeting of English teachers. My prof picked me up and drove me over at 3:30. We first met the principal (who is new this year) and the assistant principal who chatted for a bit. Then my prof had a run in with a student who was mad at her for not being around to sign a paper for him. She chewed him out for being rude, and when he found her later to get the signature, he was totally submissive. It was kind of funny…

I was also introduced to the student counselors who will control discipline if I need help and some other profs in the teacher’s lounge. We finally made it to the meeting where she laid out a spread of cookies, chocolates, and marshmallows to accompany the tea. The English teachers filtered in, speaking in both French and English to me. The ‘meeting’ never really got started, however, because everyone just gossiped, especially when the new principal and the assistant principal showed up and turned it into a joking contest… While it was nice to see people informally like this, I was also anxious to discuss what I am supposed to do this year!

At the end, after two or three hours (I don’t remember anymore), it was just me, my prof Catherine and another English teacher Letiticia and we actually made some plans. I’m going to work three hours for four days a week—Tuesday through Friday. I will rotate groups of six from their English classes for oral practice, where I will be expected to use the grammar and vocab they are learning in class and also incorporate American cultural lessons and games. If anyone gives me a problem, I send them directly to the disciplinarians, and they are cut from my services. There are over 1,000 students in the school, so each trimester I focus on a different group—seconds (second grade here is equivalent to 10^th in the US because they count down not up—these are kids in their first of three years at high school), then firsts, the ‘terminals’ who will have me right before they take their big final English exams. That is all I know now.

Then Catherine took me to a few of the buildings. The school has some boarding students during the week, so we saw them at dinner in the cafeteria. She introduced me to staff and groups of students at random; one group had some deaf kids in it who were confused at what she was saying, so to help out, I signed my name! In elementary school, a bunch of my friends and I learned the sign language alphabet in order to ‘talk’ during class, but I only remember the letters of my name now. So that was mildly impressive, I suppose… Historical note here: “Interestingly, however, American Sign Language shares many vocabulary terms with Old French Sign Language (LSF) because a French Deaf man, Laurent Clerc, was one of the first teachers of the Deaf in the U.S. in the nineteenth century. So if you know ASL, you're better off taking a vacation in France than in England!” (Source: http://www.deaflibrary.org/asl.html)

Catherine led me to the infirmary and we ended up at the retirement party of one of the nurses! So I got introduced to all kinds of teachers and staff and got handed a glass of champagne. We did not leave until 8:10! And I had invited some assistants to PA’s apartment for a game night with French people that started at 8, so I was getting nervous about them showing up to a party without a host! Luckily, I arrived right when Seth and Caely did.

The party was fun—five of PA’s friends and two assistants showed up. We had drinks and snacks to share! Just as we were getting ready to play De Pommes A Pommes—the Apples to Apples game that PA translated—the power went out in just our apartment! After lots of confusion and fears that it had been cut off for not paying the electric bill, PA managed to flip a switch in the stairway and save the party! We played De Pommes A Pommes and Time’s Up, a version of charades. Everyone writes down a few names of real or fictive people and throws them in a bowl. The first round, you can use words to make people guess the names; round two, you can only use one word (usually referring to jokes made in round one); and in round three, you have to act out the person. The game is fun, except when there are too many French references that I don’t know. Luckily, this time I had two other Americans to sympathize with me!

And all that was only Thursday! Here is how Friday went…

I went to the school again to meet Catherine at 10:20 in the teacher’s lounge. She was late, so I talked a bit with a few of the English profs I had already met. They all did British English, so it is even a bit bizarre to talk to them in English sometimes. Catherine then took me around to some of the professional studios (because, remember, this is a professional high school, not a traditional college prep one). I saw future electricians at work and the audiovisual work space where a class on setting up the lights and sound for big events was taking place. It was all very impressive. I was introduced to tons of groups of students and profs again!

From there, I went to Catherine’s English class of seconds, who are already pretty decent at speaking basic English phrases. They asked me questions about where I was from and what high schools were like there. It helped me understand how to talk with them and help them learn at their level.

Before I left, I gave the principal’s secretary the name and number of my apartment agent because he was supposed to negotiate with her on a “Financial Guarantor” that I do not have. Apparently, in France, young people with no or low salaries need to have a Financial Guarantor to support their rent payments if necessary—and this person has to be French so that they could be taken to court in France if it comes to that. Since I have no family or close friends with a salary in France, I have no guarantor. I had assumed at this point that the school had found a way around this, or at least had found someone willing to do it for me. This was not to be the case…

I went to the agency after lunch, thinking I would be getting my keys and moving in to my apartment yesterday. At first, the keys weren’t there because the inspector still had them—I was to come back in an hour. I went and bought cleaning supplies for the place. I go to get my keys after an hour and mention that my school should call about the guarantor, and the agent said that I cannot have the keys until she knows who the guarantor is. She calls the principal directly who says he will call her back in a bit. I am instructed to come back in another hour.

Let me note that it is pouring down rain, and I am carrying heavy bags of cleaning supplies. I was so angry that this paperwork issue was getting in my way.

After another hour, the agent says she has no good news. The principal has nothing for me. She called the apartment owner, but he will take nothing less than a guarantor. I have until Monday to find one, or I’m out.

So my family is tracking down all leads to France at the moment. To be a guarantor, you have to send in salary and tax info, so it is a bit invasive. Yet, there will never be a problem because I and my parents will take care of the rent. It is all so frustrating to have no legal standing as a foreigner in this matter and have no one to help me.

This is where I am now—on the brink of losing my dream apartment because I need a French name on the books. We investigating other options like paying more up front or using an insurance program (if I can qualify). We shall see come Monday.

For today, I have Deepa, a friend from middle school who is an assistant in Rouen, coming to visit. I actually need to go pick her up from the train station in a bit, so I will sign off here.

Au revoir!