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...

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!

Brussels, Bruges, and Back to Work

Ah! Here is a quick catch-up on the last few days!!

Wednesday, I took the train into Brussels, Belgium, where Katherine and Caitlin were awaiting me at the station. We visited a brewery of sour gueuze (sp?) beer, ate fries and waffles, and saw Autoworld, a museum of old cars! We found an awesome cafe with the best chai tea lattes in Europe. Dinner was at an Irish pub that I've been to many times, including this past summer where I watched a World Cup game there, standing in the crowd for two hours!

Chocolate Mickey sculpture for Ma!

Note the grey skies of Wednesday...

 

The next day was a leisurely outing to Bruges under grey, drizzling skies. It was an hour train ride, then a long, slow stroll up to the center of town with lots of photo ops. We had tea/coffee, cupcakes, and chocolates at a tea shop. I made them stop to see the Michelangelo, the Jesus Blood, the canals, and my favorite chocolate shops. We also had a yummy pasta lunch and an afternoon Bruges Zot beer. Oh, and I managed to buy a necklace in a funky little shop. Back in Brussels, we ate more fries for dinner, then Caitlin and I got hookah and drinks before hitting the hostel.

Latte, chocolates, and a red velvet cupcake! Mmmm!

For Friday we just met at the chai tea cafe to hang out before our trains left. We all had different itineraries, so I ended up on one train with C and the next with K! And I was back in Rennes by 5:15pm to hang out with PA a bit.

Why I like travelling with C and K: We eat/drink/chill a lot. We can speak franglais. We can just be happy strolling.

Saturday to Sunday, I was in Vitré to hang out with Caitlin--make baked brie with fig jam and veggie soup and watch movies. It was a nice chill weekend :)

Started work up today, and my schedule was very messed up! Two of my classes were not even there... including my 8:30am one :/ For a class I did have, I did Two Truths and A Lie, and this girl wrote "I like scream" instead of "I like ice cream," lol!

Back to the grindstone... 23 days of work to go! Then family and friends visit! Hooray! And spring is arriving, so life is getting much happier around here :)

The Strike Strikes Back!

Let me summarize the last few days for you...

Monday (night): Finally ordered Speed Rabbit Pizza, the place under my apartment! It was really good--tried a barbecue/onion/ground beef/pickles and a chicken/curry/potato/bacon bits. Both yummy!

Tuesday: Went to Vitré in the afternoon to get my haircut with Caitlin! It was 19euros at a walk-in place... I have some funky layers at the moment, but it looks and feels soooooo much better short again! We spluged and bought 16euros worth of fancy chocolates at a shop we passed and spent the evening eating chocolates and these gratin potatos:

Serves 6

Baking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 3 pounds (1.5 kg) Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1/2 pound (225 g) Gruyère cheese (either Emmental or Comté –Comté being stronger, or Beaufort if you can find some –it's very expensive in the US)
• 8 oz. (225 g) crème fraîche (french cultured cream), or heavy cream if you can't find crème fraîche
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (20 cL) milk
• salt and black pepper
• butter (just enough to butter the dish –no oil please!)
• 2 garlic cloves

1. Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly (about 1/8") and place in water to remove excess starch.
2. Butter a deep oven-safe dish. Peel and press the garlic cloves or chop them very finely. Spread at the bottom of the dish.
3. Preheat your oven at 390F (200C).
4. Dry the potato slices in a clean cotton cloth. Place a first layer of potato slices in the dish. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
5. Add a new layer of potato and proceed as described above. Repeat until all the potatoes are layered. Make sure to keep 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche for later. Finish with cheese.
6. Pour the milk on the potatoes.
7. Bake for 1 hour at 390F.
8. Beat the egg with the remaining crème fraîche and pour this mix on the gratin. Bake for 15 more minutes. 

Wednesday: After some stovetop oatmeal, I took the train back to Rennes to drop off my stuff then headed back to the station at 12:30 to meet Pierre-Antoine for a trip to Paris. His interview was right next to the Eiffel Tower, so we wandered around the park there for a few hours beforehand. The interview itself took only 15 minutes and seemed to go well, but he will not know anything until April!!! After that, we metroed to Opera and my favorite steet in Paris--Rue Sainte-Anne in the Japanese quarter! Had a delicious Oyokodon dinner and metroed back to the Montparnasse Station where there is a STARBUCKS!!! Needless to say, I was content with the day ;)

Thursday: Another STRIKE day! It's about the same things as back in October, but recently, the government said that all retiring professors will not be replaced in order to cut jobs... One prof was saying that next year was going to be all messed up since they won't have enough profs for their current student grouping system. So out of my three classes, I had three students, two, and zero... I bought groceries and then went to the CAF office to sort out why I am not yet getting my housing aid money. I was there almost an hour, and the lady just made yet another photocopy of my salary bulletin (I had already mailed them two). Hopefully, nothing else will be messed up.

I was so happy to have a busy day! I really am not a person who is content doing nothing :/

So now I am enjoying some tea with my new favorite snack of baguette with fig jam and brie cheese. SOOOO DELICIOUS! All of my high-class blog readers should jump on this bandwagon!

Pictures to come when my camera is recharged, lol!

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

:*

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.

Sick again... ugh!

Bonjour tout le monde ! Hello everyone!

I ended up with a sore throat and earache again this weekend, so I had to trek back to the doctor on Monday morning, missing three hours of class. Apparently, the antibiotic I got in December doesn't treat ear infections, so it has been lingering!!! Ugh! I don't trust French docs!!!

Another weird thing about French medicine is that they sell all the drugs in their original boxes with the pills in foil. So if I need 24 pills, I could end up with three boxes of ten and just have extra pills lying around... It seems like a waste to me.

Anyway, I spent Monday and Tuesday resting in my apartment, sleeping a ton. I felt much better by this morning, so I went to Vitré with Katherine to make funfetti cupcakes at Caitlin's apartment. First, we had a fishsticks and french fries meal as though we were toddlers again. We also took a walk to the castle because the weather has been rather springlike and clear lately! The cupcakes were made and eaten while listening to Glee music and chatting. It was a pleasant afternoon with friends :)

After a five-day hiatus, I have two long workdays ahead of me! Tennessee music, here we come!

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 ;)

Little cakes... YUM!

Hanging out at Cafe Laurène! ;)

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!

Business as usual

Quick life update for my faithful followers:

Wednesday was a Vitré outing to hang out with Caitlin--I saw her open her Christmas presents in her newly returned suitcase that AirFrance lost over the holidays! I got to eat chili, rice crispie treats, and chicken nuggets with fries while watching Teen Mom. It was like being a kid in America for an afternoon :)

Two early 8:30 workdays were draining for Thursday and today... One of the teachers has the flu, so I got out two hours early today (good for me, horrible for her!). I did, however, spend another extra hour at school being interviewed by the Graphic Industries class for the school paper! It should be exciting to see what the article ends up being like... They asked questions in English, so hopefully it won't be translated back to French awkwardly. They're even going to take my photo for it next week! I'll be sure to share it all with you when it is printed :)

I've also been talking with Ma about when the family is going to visit. Remember, folks, I'm on vacation here February 26 to March 14 and then April 23 to June 7! (Though, PA and I were just talking about visiting Prague for a few (cold!) days at the end-of-Feb/beginning-of-March part!) Will let you know how things work out, of course. All are welcome!

Tonight, I'm meeting up with a few assistants for dinner and movies. Caitlin is staying over so we can go to the market and/or Irish brunch at Apple Pie. As long as I can sleep a lot this weekend, I'll be happy.

Bisous to you all! :*

Disneyland and work

I last left you nearly a week ago. Since then, I've been far too busy to sleep until last night! Thursday and Friday were early work days with four hours each. In one, I had a deaf student with a translator which was interesting but made me feel bad for talking so much... I often had to translate my English to French for the woman to turn into sign langage for the student. Luckily, I also got off an hour early on Friday so I could pack for Disneyland!

PA and I took the TGV to Marne-la-Vallée, the train station right between the Disney parks and the Disney Village with the hotels just beyond. Disneyland Paris is really like a small-scale Disney World--it was a great break from life-as-usual here in Rennes.

Friday night we just checked in to the hotel and enjoyed some CNN, sine we arrived around 10pm. On Saturday, Disneyland Park, the Magic Kingdom-esque one, opened some attractions at 8am for Disney resort guests and then everything at 10am for all visitors. We got to go on Space Mountain twice (I lost my phone the first time :/), Buzz Lightyear, and some Fantasyland rides.

Don't fall off Space Mountain!!!

We stopped in a restaurant for a drink and left via a side door that went into Adventureland. No one was around, presumably because the rides weren't opening for another ten minutes, and we decided to head to the Indiana Jones roller coaster to wait. A woman came up to us demanding to know how we got in because that section of the park wasn't open yet--we explained that we just walked out of a restaurant, but she made it seem like we scaled the walls to break in to Adventureland! She escourted us half-way out and told us to keep walking, but then the announcement for the park openeing came on over the loudspeakers and a crowd of people appeared, running towards us! We joined them and went about enjoying our Disney day on all the classic rides :)

It's a Small World and the grey sky that stayed dry until we left the park!

 Another great part of Disney was the American foods--foot-long hot dogs for lunch and a big Rainforest Cafe salad for dinner!!! A super cute French touch was the Brioche Mickey, a Mickey-shaped pastry with Nutella inside, YUM!

Brioche Mickey and and a café au lait :)

After the long park day and an early dinner, we took an evening nap. We had planned to go to the nightclub in the Disney Village, but it was apparently closed for the season. We had dressed up and walked through the rain at 11pm for nothing :( Instead, we peeked in the still-open shops and then returned to the hotel room to enjoy more CNN.

A bit of a sleep-in for Sunday because the Walt Disney Studios Park didn't open until 10. We managed to go on the Tower of Terror and the Rock'n'Roller Coaster multiple times, see the Moteurs Action! stunt show, and go to a few of the other attractions. Sadly, the wait for Crush's Coaster was always above an hour, so we never tried that. But the big rides we did were satisfying!

After that was one of the best meals I've had since I moved to France: steak and veggie kebab, potatos gratin, and a warm chocolate cake at Ludwig's Castle. Delicious!!! We killed some time around the shops and took our 9:30 train back to Rennes, arriving after midnight! I slept pretty soundly that night...

I worked three hours yesterday, got a new phone, ate lunch, and napped for three hours! I even went to bed before 11pm and woke up at 9 this morning feeling so much better! I love sleeping :)

After-holidays slump...

After the holidays, things just seem quiet and empty without the lights, the decorations, the food, and the people all around you... *sigh*

I was back to work on Monday to see the first of my all new classes. My new schedule is only Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, but I start at 8:30, which is miserable in the winter when it is still super dark out when I have to wake up. The kids are all nice but very shy so far--I miss my classes of chattering secretaries! And since these are all new groups, I can redo a lot of my lessons (or at least the good ones). I've been doing my Tennessee powerpoint to introduce myself, then Two Truths and a Lie and Would You Rather? as icebreaker games. I'll let you know how my other nine classes turn out this week.

With this scehdule comes a two day weekday break on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday night I stayed up late to skype my friend Marguerite in DC when she got home from work (a six hour time difference). Tuesday I slept late and surrendered to my books for the afternoon. PA and I had some grad school crises last night, when we saw that schools hadn't received part of our applications according to our online checklists. But after emailing and calling a few places, we learned that they just haven't processed everything, so the stuff is probably just in a pile of unopened mail still. Phew! Or "pfiou" as the French spell it!

Today I got up early to meet Caitlin at the train station at 9:30 to run errands with her around town. Unfortunately, all of the errands were unsucessful :( We finished off the morning by eating at a cafe called Apple Pie. Owned by an Irish woman, the cafe is supplied by all local and organic products, mostly from her own farm! We chatted with her (in English!) as we ate and she told us about being an English teacher, a translator, and a businesswoman (in European lobbying) and then finally opening her dream cafe in Rennes after having a farm that just sold her bread for five years.

Most importantly, the food: we had a tartine, or sliced toasted bread with toppings of cheddar cheese and onion, with a side of shredded cabbage, carrot, and beet salad. For dessert we shared carrot cake and their namesake Apple Pie which were both amazing! Anytime I need a dessert break and some English conversation, I now know where to go!

So after Caitlin left, I took a much needed nap. Now my back is killing me, so I'm going to do some gentle yoga to relax. Work tomorrow and Friday, then I go to Disneyland Paris for the weekend with Pierre-Antoine, hooray!!!

Working in France v. the US

I suppose holiday nostalgia is just making me miss all things about home... I've been very reflective this week!

My thought of the day is about American v. French work ethic. I miss the teamwork and striving for excellence that the US encourages. I don't see creativity or passion in the workplace here, or at least not yet. None of the teachers care what I do with their students; only one has even asked me about it! Here in France at my school I feel like no one cares much about their students--maybe that is also related to lack of school spirit and community. I remember Mrs. G from my high school, the kind of teacher who gets to know you and who goes the extra mile to take care of you.

Another issue hs been PA asking his professors here for recommendation letters for US graduate school applications. Professors and students have no personal relationship here--you don't chat with them, you don't have department picnics with them. While I could ask professors who knew me and my dreams, PA has to rely on professors who have just read his masters work and seen him in class. It seems rather cold to me after the experience of my university.

A tangent off of this: the strikes in October made me angry because I felt like it was silly and selfish to be out protesting when children needed to be in class learning. I thought of my high school experience when I wouldn't dare miss a class because I needed every second of learning for the AP exams! And these kids here lost three weeks with no tangible consequences, just their own intellectual losses! Vacation be damned, kids need structure.

And now I'm off to work, hehe!

Plans for this weekend: maybe dancing tonight at an international student party, lunch with Caitlin tomorrow, a Thanksgiving meal on Saturday with the other assistants in Rennes.

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.

Using all those brochures I have...

This is another short week of school because of Armstice Day on Thursday. We have no work Friday, and I have no classes tomorrow, so it is a five-day weekend for me. You would think I'd be excited, but I'm really just bored!

I worked two hours yesterday and one today (because the other class did not show up), talking about vacations and what activities people can do in cities, countryside, beaches, and mountains. I then passed out brochures from Las Vegas, DC, Tennessee, and Chicago and had the kids look through them to find an activity they would like to try, whcih they had to present to the class. More successful with some groups than others--language ability is super varied. Group size too--between four and ten--can chang the dynamic of chattiness versus participation in the lesson. The plan is for teachers to give me half the class for half an hour, and then we switch for the second half hour. It is better to have small groups but also tiring to do the same lesson four times in a row. I'll have to find a rotation system to keep myself alert.

Also, I did finally get a schedule from next Monday until the holiday break. I have 4 hours Monday, 2 Tuesday morning, 2 Wednesday afternoon, 4 Thursday, and Fridays off. Monday is a 9:30 start, Tuesday 8:30, but I'd rather get going now that I have official work to do! The reason that it will change in January is because professional schools have internships that their students go on for weeks at a time, so some of my students will leave then, and others will arrive to take their place at different hours.

This weekend I pledge to prepare more lessons and games! Next week I want to do a lesson on stereotyes between French and American people. I also want to play a song and have the kids fill in blanks in the lyrics, so we can talk about music and learn some vocab. The week after will be for my Thanksgiving activitites! ;)

Another thing I've noticed is that French people start sentences with "euh/bah..." and end them with "quoi" which means "what." I guess it is just their way of saying "um" and "you know" like we do in English, but it is funny to observe. I even notice some of the assistants doing it to sound more authentically French! Maybe I should join the bandwagon on this one.

I'll let you know what excitement I get up to this weekend too! Bisous !

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? 

Answer: No. It is more likely that the recipe dates back to the medieval ages and may have been a logical "invention" by different people , akin to battering and frying any food. Supposedly it was originally known in England and America as "German toast" , prior to the First World War , when it was changed because of anti-German sentiment. [From http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_the_french_make_french_toast]

Anyone recall hearing about "German Toast"? Haha!

A rough week

Even though we only had class from Wednesday to Friday this week, I had some tough times. I've really started preparing for classes since I will be getting my official schedule on November 15. I've made powerpoints on Tennessee, traveling in the US (to use with the brochures everyone has been collecting for me), and the American school system, and I've set up games to play, like Would You Rather, Two Truths and A Lie, and Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. Some of the profs let me steal groups of three to ten students for conversation, games, and these presentations this week, so I've been really getting my feet wet.

So far the students are generally nice, but there a definitely some groups and people who care a lot more that others. You just have to hope that they will be willing to play along. I think, in general, they do like me since I am younger, American, and more fun/interesting/different than regular class.

What has been rough, you ask? Well, one of the professors and I are having some communication issues since between her English and my French understanding, something is getting lost in translation. This is making some moments uncomfortable, but hopefully, all will work out in the end.

I also learned that next week is another three day week! Thursday is Armstice Day, so we're off for that and the Friday. I'm thinking of doing something fun--traveling somewhere nearby for a day perhaps. I'm trying to budget well so that I can live off of my euros and not exchange anymore dollars. Wish me luck! ;)

Besides work, I also had some fun last night going out with PA and two of his friends. A bar was having a belated Halloween theme night, so if you went in costume you got a free drink. I was a devil again, and PA and his friends wore morphsuits:

It was a release to be a crazy person wandering around in a costume on a Thursday night! People talked to us on the street to laugh or ask questions about how they can see out of the morphsuits. It was just funny! We also had a guy buy us free caramel vodka shots! It was silly but much needed.

PA is in Vitré for the weekend, and so I am looking for ways to entertain myself. I definitely need some down time to read and chill after a stressful few days.

A nice French doctor

Today was yet another adventure in French—I had to go to the doctor! The owner of Caely’s (another assistant here) apartment recommended one to her, so I got the name and address. The medical office is run without secretaries, medical history forms, nurses, or even appointments! I just walked in at 8:30am, and the doctor waved me back as the first person of the day. He sat behind his desk, and I had a seat and just described my symptoms to him. I studied up on vocabulary the night before, but with some of the questions we switched to a bit of English and used his handy French-English medical dictionary. So without a physical exam, temperature, blood pressure or anything, he wrote me a prescription and said he hoped he never had to see me again! How nice!

Since it was my first medical visit, the doctor also had to fill out a form for me to deliver to my medical insurance office here. I also haven’t yet received my Carte Vitale, the social security card here for medical reimbursement, so I had to pay for the visit (22 Euros) and the medicines from the pharmacy (11 Euros) up front and deliver the relevant receipts to the insurance office to get my money back later. So yes, I also stopped by that office to drop all of these things off. Luckily, there is no line during the regular workday :)

Just ate a sandwich in my apartment, waiting to go to observe more classes this afternoon. My boss called to say that I will have a schedule starting November 15 since this week and next week have strange scheduling for some reason. Thank goodness! Soon I will actually have (steady) work to do!

Otherwise, things are quiet around here. I’ll try to get to some cultural notes soon, but I haven’t really been inspired by anything lately…

The strike and its problems...

I just read this article about the strike conditions in Marseilles: Bad air and bobbing oil tankers in Marseille

I think I mentioned that transportation is at a minimum, but maybe I failed to point out that the port of Marseilles is blocked so oil ships cannot land, hence the gas shortages for cars and buses! I'm just glad the Rennes garbagemen have not decided to strike--a trash buildup would be miserable.

I managed to meet the last English prof at my school today, Aline. She is older and speaks the best English of all of them! I would have sworn she was British! Luckily, I came on the day when a student had baked cookies and they were having tea as a treat. I introduced myself and they told me about their work in graphic design and printing. This is a group of post-bac students (the bac is the final high school exam) who range in age from 19 to 25. Their English wasn't that great, but at least they try.

After that, I hung around to see Catherine. She wanted to make sure I was coming in every day since we hadn't crossed paths in a week. She also arranged for me to take some groups of Laetitia's students this afternoon. PA will be heading to Vitre today for basketball, and I have an assistant dinner party at Caely's tonight. Tomorrow I will head to Vitre myself for a change of scene and to see PA's home basketball game--undefeated so far!

After this afternoon, I have a vacation until November 3rd. My friend Deepa and I might travel a bit locally to work around the strikes. I'll keep you posted!