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.

Two thoughts

First, a quote I currently love: Distance to love is like wind to a fire--it inflames the great and extinguishes the small.

All of you out there who take time to chat with me, even though I'm far away, I LOVE YOU!

Second, I want to take up a hobby. Anyone know something good to get into? I'm considering knitting...

Peace

After a glowing end of the week review about being 'magic,' I had an equally magical weekend. Firstly, I received a package of wrapped Christmas gifts from the family on Friday morning. That afternoon, I took the train with PA to Vitre to visit Caitlin, my favorite assistant here! We had fun making lemon bars and going out to eat Indian food with Sara the German assistant (samosas and Matar Paneer); the waiter even chatted with us a bunch and was impressed that Caitlin and I actually ate the spicy sauce that French people never touch! After that was all the fun of a good old-fashioned American slumber party with sugary snacks, tv, joking around, etc. Tons of fun!

Side note: Caitlin taught me that a "French press" is known as an "Italian" coffeemaker here! LOL!

Our baking challenge for this morning: biscuits and Southern style sausage gravy! We googled recipes and made it all from scratch--me the biscuits and Caitlin the gravy. They were soooooo delicious! We had a lazy morning of cooking, eating, and drinking coffee before a grocery store run. She had to get things done for classes since she is day-tripping to Paris tomorrow, so I stopped in to see Pierre-Antoine before catching the 5:30 train back to Rennes. Did some intense grocery shopping for myself here, then I enjoyed the first box of Kraft mac and cheese that Ma sent me from the States! Now I'm having some real Sleepytime tea and clementines :)

Speaking of clementines, PA's niece Clémentine talked about me recently, saying that my country was very far away from hers! So cute!

Here are all the recipes we used!

Biscuits: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Biscuits.html

2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar (optional)

1/2 cup (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Topping:

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs (use pastry blender, two knives, or fingertips). Add the milk and slightly beaten egg and stir until just combined. (The texture should be sticky, moist and lumpy.)

Place mixture on a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently until it comes together and is a smooth dough.

Roll out dough to 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thickness. Cut out biscuits with a lightly floured round cookie cutter. Place on prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with the beaten egg and milk mixture and bake for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the biscuit comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Serve warm with butter.

Makes about 12 3-inch (7.5 cm) biscuits.

Southern Style Sausage Gravy: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,175,135176-243195,00.html
1/2 pkg. mild sausage
2 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. all purpose flour or Wondra
4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pepper

Cook sausage until done. Add butter and flour. Simmer for a few minutes on medium heat stirring frequently. Add milk, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium-high heat stirring constantly until desired thickness.

Lemon Bars: http://www.joyofbaking.com/LemonBars.html

Shortbread Crust:

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (25 grams) confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Lemon Filling:

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (approximately two large lemons)

1 tablespoons (5 grams) grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons (25 grams) all purpose flour

Garnish:

Confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, an 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20 cm) pan.

Shortbread Crust: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together. Press onto the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.

Lemon Filling: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer,  beat the sugar and eggs until nice and smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Fold in the flour. Pour the filling over the shortbread crust and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling has set. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 

To serve: Cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar. These are best eaten the day they are made but can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Yield: 16 - 2 inch (5 cm) bars

Quick smile

Today a professor told me, "Yesterday, I heard kids speak English that never said a word before, and I thought, 'Lauren is magic!"

Just knowing that a few kids appreciated my silly lesson has cheered me up so much.

:)

Life lessons

Today I realized that I was the worst kind of student--sure, I was a nice kid with good grades, but I was so quiet! Like many, I was shy and too often afraid of making a mistake. Now that I am a teacher of sorts, I see that it is the talkative, maybe even the 'troublesome' kids that are the best in the foreign language--and maybe any--classroom. They are the ones who have no fear in talking to me, so they can play along with the games and lessons I bring up, using broken English, but English nonetheless.

Today's first class was full of nice terminales, so their English should have been pretty decent. They didn't say a word besides 'yes' or 'no'! During Would You Rather?, a game that kids two years below them could play along with for half an hour, I had to give up on because they refused to answer--it was like deer in the headlights! I told the professor this after the class, and she said that all of their teachers complain about it. They're great on paper and in their graphic design classes, but they are as silent as mice.

For my second hour, I got the best five in the class for the whole hour, while the others revised their last test. I did the powerpoint on Tennessee, talked about stereotypes, taught some American slang, and played Two Truths and A Lie, where they had to make up their own three and I had to guess the lie. The stereotypes lesson is hit or miss, I'm finding. Some groups stare blankly, and others really get interested when they hear about French stereotypes that Americans have, including:
-They eat cheese, frog legs, snails, and drink wine.
-They all smoke.
-French people hate Americans.
-They wear berets.
-French people are always well-dressed and stylish.
-French people are lazy--they don't like to work and they often go on strike.
-The French don't take showers. (The students all want to know where this comes from!)
-All French people live in Paris.
-French people always wear black.
-French cooking is the best in the world!

I think this lesson helps because it makes them realize that I'm not a normal teacher and that I am a foreigner with different ideas about people.

So tonight is a birthday bar gathering for one of the British assistants, Eleanor! PA is working a wine and cheese tasting for foreign university students, so I'm just hanging with the assistant crowd. Luckily, I don't have work until 3 tomorrow!

First day of scheduled classes

Here’s another French mystery for you—no one is out on Sundays! I see about one tenth of the people I usually see on Place Sainte Anne on Sundays.

A thought from fellow assistant Caitlin’s father was that living in France is like living in the US in the 1950s. Hours are shorter for businesses, nothing is open 24/7, and most things are closed on Sundays!

I don’t think I mentioned yet that Christmas things have been up around here since before Halloween! I guess since Halloween and Thanksgiving aren’t here to break up the holidays, Christmas shows up a lot earlier. Besides décor and ornaments in shops, there are also gift wrapping tables outside the toy store and lights hung across all the main streets and squares. I’ll be sure to share photos when they get turned on.

Enough random thoughts. Today was my first full-scheduled day of classes, four hours worth. Lycée is the last three years of high school here called secondes (10^th grade age), premières (11^th), and terminales (12^th). What I learned today was that English levels are vastly different among these grades :/ My terminale class at 4pm on Mondays is considered one of the worst rowdy groups in the school, but they are my favorites because they are not afraid to speak and interact with me. Plus, they understand so much of what I saw that I need double the activities to fill their half hour. My secondes just stare blankly at me, and usually just one or two are clever enough to translate my questions into French for the others. They’re just so nice and shy, it’s annoying!

In talking with the more active classes, I think I will incorporate more music and tv into my lessons to keep them interested. Next week, I will do something on slang and texting/chat lingo which I hope they’ll enjoy.

Whew! One third of my classes are done for the week already! I feel so much better knowing when and where I have to go. I also like having the autonomy to do what I want with the kids.

Rain and reflections

Nonstop rain today, so I had no motivation to go out. Plus, the party last night lasted until 5 or 6am, so I didn't sleep all that much. I did a little work, a lot of reading Guns, Germs, and Steel (only a chapter left!) and Moins que zéro, a novel that Pierre-Antoine gave me.

The most fun of the day was when my door buzzed this morning. I wasn't expecting anyone on a Saturday morning, so I ignored it. Then, I looked out my window to see a yellow postal delivery van driving away. Ma had sent me some packages, so I realized what was going on immediately. Still in my pjs, I ran out into the rain in my bathrobe and chased the truck down. The guy seemed rather surprised, but he got the package out for me quickly so I could get in out of the rain. Nor many people were out on the Place at the time, but I saw smiles and laughs and heard a woman yell 'pyjamas' at me! Ah well, all for the sake of adventure.

The package had little Christmas decorations/home goods, which I've already hung up and set out, and some GOLDFISH CRACKERS!!! Eating some today made me feel like a little kid in preschool--very theraputic.

My internet died for a few hours, so I took the time to reflect on my life here. I've been very negative lately about the students misbehaving, miscommunication with French people all the time, the bad weather, the strange food... A skype conversation with Ma ended with, "No one is going to want to hang out with you if you're so negative." Very true. I'm resolving to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in the words of Spamalot! Here I have a minimally demanding job that allows me to live comfortably in a foreign country in a nice town. I should remember my blessings; perhaps celebrating Thanksgiving soon will help.

Also helping me cheer up is the prospect of holiday travel. I am going to Copenhagen to see my Africa study abroad buddies EBrown and Lily for the weekend of December 9-12. For the Christmas holidays, I'll hang out with PA and maybe (tentative plan here) go to Eurodisney and/or Strasbourg for the Christmas markets--or if anyone has a Christmas in Germany suggestion, that'd be nice too ;) For the February/March break, my dream is to do Spain, Portugal, and Morocco for a week or two. We'll see how the cards fall, but a change of scenery and something to look forward to may be just what I need.

As always, thanks for reading my confessions from France. Hope to hear back from you sometime!