Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Nicole and I were walking through the streets of Tours today, avoiding the patisseries, looking longingly at croissant after croissant, and we passed by two little kids with their mom.

One kid was a witch and the other kid was a ghosty-monster thing.

And they were decked out in their costumes.

So of course Nicole and I freaked out and basically screamed "Happy Halloween" at them. Their mom said "merci" and the kids just looked terrified as they walked (read: ran) away.

Happy Halloween anyway!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Awwww shoot!

Hey everyone!
Once again, sorry it's taken me so long to get back here. This past week has been ridiiiiiiiiic and I am now processing it.

1) I GOT A GUITAR
bleep yeah!
I went to this place outside the walls with super friendly French guys (who, by the way, told me that I speak well in French) and they sold me a second-hand guitar for only 70 euros. Amazing. It is an acoustic/electric but the electric part is broken which is, I'm assuming, why the guitar was sold to the store. Add a capo and a case to that and my total was around 100 - just what I got from my peeps for my bday for guitar-purchasing! So freaking sweet. I have played "You Took me by Surprise," "Both Hands," and "Stay" multiple times for people since I got the guitar. I am so so so happy with it. Oh AND my friend, Silvia, asked a local restaurant/open mike guy if I could play at his place sometime... he's booked through January but after that, I'm good to go! Of course I still consider busking like I did in New York but, just like in New York, I'm too scared, so I won't do that. But I could definitely use the euros!

2) I bought a bike!
Went to Decathalon, a giant sports good store like Dunham's, which is prob like 7 km away. Maybe more. Anyway, they were having a second-hand bike sale all week and I found a beautiful racing bike for only 45 euros. Yay aGAIN. Too bad I couldn't put the bike on the bus on the way back so I had to ride it home. Actually that was awesome because I was tailing the bus the entire way and it felt hella good to ride a bike again. And to get some exercise. Because walking to get a baguette every day isn't really workin' out for me.
On Sunday I took a long bike ride with a few assistants away from Avignon and into the French countryside. It was beautiful and peaceful and I definitely had to pause and take a moment as I thought what I always think here: "I can't believe I'm here, that I'm doing this, that my life is like this." It's always surprising and always amazing.

3) I leave for vacation tomorrow at 5:00 am! yes, that's right - my train for Tours leaves the Avignon Centre station at 5:06. It's quarter to 1 right now and I'm going to wake up just before four so... I should go to bed. But I just had tea and I have a lot to think about so I'm pretty wired right now. I am going to Tours for Tuesday and Wednesday and then I will arrive in Paris on Thursday! Holy crow I am so so so excited. It's my first major trip outside of Avignon (besides Marseille which was for orientation so it kinda doesn't count even though it was fun and cool... anything associated with orientation/Monique Lheman/French bureaucratic incompetence is NOT cool...) and I am ready to see more of France. I'm also ready to see my peeps who left on vacay before me - Nicole, Darija, Emily, and Amy are already in Tours and I'm kinda itchin' to see 'em. Definitely am.

4) We got paid! With real money! Like, it was in my bank account! But not it's not really there b/c I paid rent, I paid Micaela, and I did a lil' shopping. But still! I got paid! And I finally went to the CAF office (gives you $$ help with lodging) to get started on that whole process and they gave me all the papers so maybe I'll get mya ct together some day so I'll get money back in January. When I get back from vacation I gotta remember to go to the cell phone store and the CAF place again.

5) Avignon is amazing. Avignon at night is amazing. Avignon with all my peeps is amazing. I love Italian coffee, baguettes at any time of day, the 'petit gout,' running into assistants from Germany or El Salvador on the street, drinkin' a beer with my French teacher, walking around the walls, picnics on Le Rhone, bike rides in the countryside, guitar singalongs with Anglophones and Francophones, dancing and singing at karaoke, chocolate after every meal (yes, even breakfast, sometimes), awkward times with my landlady, fighting with the bank (more on that later, I'm sure), pasta pasta pasta, Dano, Celine Dion in French on the radio, and everything. I love it all. I love that now I love tomato and mozzarella, that I love salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and that the tofu here is amazing. I love that I turned on the radio last night and I heard amazing French church music that made me miss home and made me listen to French. I love that there's an old guy who walks around minstrel-like with his guitar on sunny afternoons in Place Pie serenading/bugging the people sitting at the cafe. I love that I can have five days of vacation and be non-stop busy, non-stop involved with everyone here. There is always someone to talk to, always someone to cook with, always more to learn about everyone. I love conversations in three languages. I love the little bubble (bulle) that's been created here in Avignon. It sounds cheesy, and it probably is, but it's just freaking fantastic.

So I have to go to bed. Must be up in 3 hours. Bueno nolta! (I'm going to try to learn a few Italian phrases for y'all).

I'm hungry.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Birthday. like WHOA.

Greetings!

I know I know I know it has been way too long since I last updated (thanks, Nicole!) and I am sure that all of you are waiting with bated breath to hear the amazing goings-on of my life. Well, I would love to tell you now but I have to finish lesson planning so I will try to tell you in a few pictures.

Words cannot properly express the emotions that were all up in my head for the weekend. My friends here in Avignon threw me the most amazing birthday party EVER. I kid you not. My face hurts from smiling so much. I've tried explaining it in English and in French to my friends and family and so far I think all the words I've chosen have fallen short.


Ok I'll try for a little description:
I love my birthday. Love love love it. Birthdays are big in the Findley family - we take 'em very seriously. I guess I've been talking about my bday pretty much... ever since I got here (sorry, everyone!) because I was so excited but also because it was going to be my first bday without ma jumelle and that was really weird and sad as was being without my family. So that's where these awesome Avignon friends stepped in.

On Friday afternoon I spent the day chillin' and drinking coffee and walking outside the walls (the shock! the horror!) to find Avignon's guitar shop. And find it, I did. It was beautiful. I could feel my body react to being around so many musical instruments - it's very apparent that I NEED to have something to play around me all the time. Guess I didn't realize how much I missed the guitar. I think I've been talking about wanting a guitar to play for as long as I've been talking about my b-day. And, um, my friends put 'em together.

Saturday was the night we chose to properly celebrate the birthday of moi because having one on the actual day (today) woulda been harder for congregating and also very silly, considering I teach tomorrow. So a bunch of us decided it'd be cool to have a picnic and go sing karoake. I just wanted an excuse to get as many of my friends together. It worked!


I was expecting a get-together of like 20 peeps, everyone eating baguettes and cheese, chillin' and waiting to go to karaoke. Well, I walked into a room of a bunch of people, a smorgasboard of food spread out, and the good times were rollin'. We had pastas and salads and chocolates and wines and cakes and so many people game: the English, the Italians, the Americans... freaking amazing. And peeps brought prezzies! I'm like WHAT!

So I ran around like a crazy person getting pictures with everyone. EVERYone. So many people, so much food, great music (French pop music is a little behind the times so "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston is v. popular here - AWESOME), so much good, great music, amazing amazing amazing friends. Amazing.

Then, while I was in between bites of something spectacular, my friends stopped all the talking and frolicing that was happening and made everyone focus on me (yay). Celine presented me with a 3-D cut-out/card of a guitar. What's that, you might ask? Well, as it was put to me "Emily, you've been talking about playing the guitar ever since we got here and we would like to hear you play. We were gonna have it ready for you but then we thought that you should pick it out yourself." And inside my guitar-card was enough $$ to buy a guitar here in Avignon.

I was speechless. I was speechless.

So of course I did a "Findley" and started tearing up immediately. Had to go into the hallway to compose myself - freaking brilliant. Oh my good gravy - toDAY I can go buy a guitar! I will have an instrument in my hands! I can't wait! a;lskajdf;alskdjfas;dj I am so so so excited.

THEN the lights went out and "Happy Birthday" was sung to me in multiple languages and Amy presented me with four gateaux with candles in them and the party recommenced in full swing. Oh! I gave an "I thank you and I think you all are amazing" speech in French but I was so freaking caught up and so happy that I don't think I made much sense. Putting words together to form coherent sentences in any language was way too difficult at that point.


It was after all the feasting and presents-giving and after I composed myself well enough to be presentable was that many of us set off on a walk to L'Americain to sing karaoke for the rest of the night. And sing we did! And we finally got the Frenchies to lighten up!


Amazing.

Amazing amazing amazing.

So that was Saturday night. I still can't believe it.

I very very much had a joyeux anniversaire. Merci.

Friday, October 19, 2007

predicate, ink

www.predicateink.com

www.predicateink.com

www.predicateink.com

Ok all, here's an explanation for the above links:
My friend, Tessa, from high school and middle school and Kehillat Israel and all that has had her own business for awhile (um, she's amazing and started it while studying art history at Barnard in NYC). She designs t-shirts/tote bags and she and her products are all amazing. So this is a plug for my dear T3P2 because she's got her own website, her own business and she's only 22. Holler!

I can vouch for her stuff because I own practically all of it. Yay.

And here's a picture of me wearing one of her shirts at the Louvre. yeahhhhhh buddy! I'm taking her merch around the world!


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

American Idol (that's me!)

"Es-tu une fille ou un garçon ?"
(Are you a girl or a boy?)

I was asked this at school yesterday by my 8 year olds. Thanks, guys.

I realized yesterday that I'm pretty much a pop star in my schools. Remember how all the little kids are obsessed with "High School Musical"? Well, I happened to mention to them, after they started asking me (again) if I had ever met "Troy" or "Gabriella," that I had seen HSM both 1 and 2 and they all flipped out. Then a group of four girls split into "filles" and "garçons" to act out the finale from the second one. Really freaking cute. They then asked me to sing a song from one of the movies. Luckily I watched the movie on repeat during one week this summer so I knew the tunes of a few of the songs. So I sang a few songs for all the kids and they were freakin' out. Then of course they kept asking me to sing and sing and sing. They wanted me to sing in English and in French and then they wanted to know if I'd ever met J.Lo.

And then they asked if I'm a boy or a girl, if I'm married, and if I have kids.


Gotta love 'em!

Here's what I taught yesterday (drum roll, please):

the alphabet!
I taught it five different times!
I never want to hear the alphabet song EVER again!

I also taught the sounds "h" "m" "n" "r" and "th"
Tryin' to make it fun, I told them that "r" is like the "aaaaargh" a pirate makes like Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean" - that went over well :) "Th" is fun because the kids get to stick out their langues to make the sound. A lot of them have lost their two front teeth so I think the "th" sound is even harder. So there was a lot of spitting, which all the kids enjoyed.
The "h" has become a classic/favorite in all of my classes because I have them pant like dogs. Comme les chiens. I'm sure their parents would be so proud.

Did I get beyond the alphabet? Not really. Well we did 'pant' to say "Hello" and "Happy Halloween," but, other than that, no. So far we've done a little self-presentation but that's about it. Next week is "Halloween" week ("No, kids, not Appy Alloween! Happy Halloween!") so hopefully I'll be able to bring in lots of fun vocabulary that they will (maybe?) retain and we'll have a ton of fun.

And I might bring in a CD of High School Musical so we can all sing "We're All in this Together." Ain't nothin' like American pop songs to get my kiddies going!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Avignon is drunk

I think that France just lost the giant Rugby World Cup to good ol' l'Angleterre so the French are pissed in every sense of the word - angry and drunk like whoa. Avignon est torchée ! Haha.

I have almost finished my first five-day weekend. I gotta tell you, folks, I'm not sure if I'll want to return to the States after having experienced the reverse of the average person's work week - two days on, five days off. It's been pretty incredible. I've cooked myself amazing food (look, Mom, veggies!) and I've hung out with awesome people and I've chilled myself out like whoa. Unfortunately all this chillin' has coincided with (and caused) procrastination of a new degree (unlike that time I wrote the 10 page paper the night before it was due with Jenna and I curled up on the floor of East Quad's ResComp trying to come up with thesis statements at 2 am) to which now I must own up tomorrow. Because tomorrow is Sunday. And on Monday I teach seven classes, I'm prepared for none, and I can't, for the life of me, remember at which levels all my students are. So tomorrow is the "take a deep breath and pray that you do it right" kind of planning day. Tomorrow also marks the 'week before my birthday' talk that I like to do every year. Look, Heath, only a week till our birthday!

On this here Saturday the 13, 2007, I spoke a ton of French. "Emily, you live in France - no duh." Ah, thank you. However, let me say that it's far too easy not to speak French here because I live with an anglophone, I don't really have to leave my house five days out of the week (again - I must repeat that I have a five day vacation chaque semaine), and I hang out with American/English assistants.

J'aime "le petit gout" en France. It means I get to eat whenever I want. I mean... "whenever I want."

Friday, October 12, 2007

Right now it's the little things


Like the fact that I woke up this morning and the first thing I did, after brushing my teeth, was talk to Giovanna in French for a good 25 minutes. Score! That has to help make up for yesterday which was a miserable day of parler-ing in French.

The fact that I've received two packages in the mail over two days from peeps back home. Birthday prezzies! Don't worry, e'erybody, I will exercise enough will not to open them! I think. I might have to have Darija hide them.

The fact that I went to the local LGBT group meeting last night so I can start getting involved in my community! I was unimpressed with the meeting, unfortunately, because the first hour and a half of it (consequently, the only part of the meeting for which I stayed because I was so freaking bored) was a debate among the older crowd discussing elections and all of that. But I did get work on the gwoir so I hope to be singin' my guts out next Wednesday at 20h30! After my 3 hour conversation class! Hurrah! There are also anglophone meetings in the LGBT group for anyone who wants to talk in English - weehaw! And one in Spanish but I know that none of my Spanish-speaking amis want to come to Les Ils et Les Elles but... oh well... Even though the meeting was hellishly boring, there are tons of things to do with all these people and, although they're all hitched and there are no single people in sight, it's still a great way to meet people and feel comfortable in the city in which I live and all of that.

The fact that I've been getting fun, news-filled e-mails from back home. I know that right now I spend (a lot of/little too much/ton of) time on the computer but it's just so nice to be able to talk to everyone, despite the six hour time difference, and to have e-mail buddies and all of that.

Oh gross - I downloaded "Zephyr and I" by Suzanne Vega thinking that I like it but really I hate it and every time it comes on I want to vomit on my computer. Go away, SV, go away!

*click*

On to more little things...
The fact that I found a post office that is just down the street from where I live rather than a kilometer away.

The fact that today will be the day I eat gelato here in France for the first time. It's gotta happen.

The fact that I can hop on a train and get to Paris in 2.5 hours whenever I damn well please.
Awesome.

[edited at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday: the fact that I got to video chat with Heather AND gchat with Lisa simultaneously yesterday evening. That made me so happy!]

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Teaching McTeachertons: Day Two

Tuesday was my second day of teaching at Ecole Mistral. The differences between Mistral and Elsa Triolet seem pretty big. First of all, the teachers in Mistral smiled at me. Secondly, Mistral is hooked up with hella great furniture/rooms for all the kiddies while Elsa Triolet seems to lag behind in, perhaps funding, perhaps caring, about the surroundings for the kids. Mistral is a bigger building with fun chairs, chalkboards that movie (!!!) and all of that. Elsa Triolet has immobile chalkboards (gosh, what are they thinking!), it's small and cramped, and... yeah.

I didn't really teach at all on Tuesday because, luckily, I'd sent an e-mail to the person, Stef Molan, who had e-mailed me my schedule and I had asked if it would be ok just to observe how the school rolls. I guess Stef got the message out because no one was surprised when I repeated this request on Tuesday. My e-mail to Stef began "Merci, Madame, pour mes horaires" and then on Tuesday a tall lanky guy came up to me saying "C'etait moi qui vous a envoye (accent aigu) l'e-mail." Oh crap. How was I suppsed to know that Stef is a man? These French with their confusing gender-neutral men and their metrosexuality and their boy-girl-androgyny! I love it but it confuses the hell outta me.

Annnyyyyway so Mistral. The little kids crack me up - they are all hooked up to the nines with the latest stuff. They are so particular. They all have their little pencil cases that they place just so on the desk and they all use really nice pens (Heath, like the pens that are your favorites) to write down anything. I now know why all French notebooks comew ith grids on them - it's so the kids can learn to write in a straight line. And if, heaven forbid, they're not writing on the grid paper, they get out their little rulers and make lines with them. Wow. When the ruler isn't in the kid's mouth it's on the paper making straight lines for him/her.

So I observed on Tuesday. The first class i observed was a math class and I sat behind a girl and I asked her how old the kids are in the class and she said that they're all nine and ten. Then she pointed to the boy sitting next to her and said Il a douze ans parce qu'il est un peu simple. ("He is twelve (and in this class) because he's a little simple"). Tellin' how it is, she was. She was super cute. In another class I had a question-answer period with them... They were 4th graders, I think. They knew a little English but the Q&A was in French and they asked me everything from Avez-vous deja vu les stars?/Michael Jordan?/Vanessa Hudgins? Avez-vous nage? Est-ce que vous etes marier? Avez-vous des enfants?* ("Have you seen any stars?/Michael Jordan/Vanessa Hudgins? Have you swum? Are you married? Do you have kids?") These kids definitely weren't shy. They were awesome, though. I can pinpoint the ones who are the most like me and with whom I'll butt heads the most but I am just so excited to work with them.

Other highlights from Ecole Mistral:
scrunchies
rolly backpacks
pencil cases
boys with earring studs (in the left ear)
more mullets (why, lord, why)

When I asked a teacher if I could leave 5 minutes early at the end of the day (I know, not the greatest way to start at a new job but...) so that I could catch my bus (the next bus is an hour later) I had a teacher offer to give me a ride to the bus stop after school. She's nice and her kid plays the saxophone.

French teacher discipline is scary. It goes a little like this:
CLAUDIA, JE DETEST TON CARACTERE!"**

Lunchtime at Ecole Mistral was a combination of scary/awkward/fun. Like most of my life, currently.
Scary: Going to the teacher's lunchroom and listening to French women teachers gossping. In French. Scary because I thought they could be talking to me. Scary because they ate like one piece of lettuce and then loads of cream on pasta and they are all as thick as twizzlers.
Awkward: Sitting in the lunchroom all by myself (at the end of the tables) eatin' my carrot and apple and yogurt (and... and... and... (I was so hungry!)) and not understanding a word of what was going on. I turned their talking into background music. Rapid-fire, occasionally ugly-sounding background music.
Fun: Finishing my lunch and going outside to hang out with the CP kids (the littlest ones). They were running around like insane-os and I chilled with the lunchyard monitor who spoke to me (v. nice to have a friendly person). I went so far as to ask her about Sarkozy and his views on immigration - crazy, eh? And I understood what she was saying! Of course we got interrupted from time to time with little French girls (scrunchies in hair, of course) running to Lunch Room Monitor with the teeny tiniest problems. So cute.
Back to Awkward: Going inside during my two hour lunch because it was too cold outisde and sitting in the hallway reading my "Insider's French Dictionary" book. Teachers walked by and were like "wtf?" Oh well.

Back to class:
My last class of the day was with the little ones - It's a CE1 and CE2 class meaning they range from 7-9. Or 6-8. I can't remember. Before class was la recreation (recess) and most went outside but I decided to stay in with a few kids who were doing work. We started talking and the kids were AMAZING. They hung out and talked to me (doucement and lentement, for my benefit). When I didn't understand a word they said (which was, unfortunately, way too often) these kids were so patient with me and circumnavigated the word with other words so I would understand. At one point they started asking me if I could do the splits (who the hell knows how to say 'the splits' in French?) and when I looked at them quizzically, they acted the splits out for me. These are tiny 6 year old French boys in their very trendy jeans gettin' down on the floor to do the splits. So cute.
After recreation I had class with these kids. Anyway, CE2 peeps have had a little French and the CE1 peeps hadn't had any. So what did I do? I taught all the kids to high five, which they, apparently, don't do here in France. They freaking loved it. I also did a lot of "Hello my name is" and gesticulating and all of that. We're going to have a lot of running around games, I feel.

Conclusion:
What thrills me about teaching in primaire is that I'm kinda at the same level with these kids. So far I've only had kids who have been so patient with me, so anxious and eager to communicate with me (in either language) and who are really eager. My momma told me that when she was younger she spent a week in a homestay in France and she would feel completely overwhelmed at dinner with the parents and all the French speaking and all of that but then she and the little girl would go on walks through the woods and the girl would take time to explain things to her/define things/etc. That's what I think my kids are going to do. I feel an awesome energy in the classes, you know? Ok so it's only been the first two days and I know it's going to change but right now I'm feeling hella positive about it. Now I just have to remember to make lesson plans for next week!

Here's a giant cyberspace HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my bffffffff Anna! Happy bday, buff-izzle! (yesterday)

*Apologies to all you French readers/speakers out there - I have no idea how to rock the French accents on my computer. Once I figure it out, I will write in French that is pleasing to the eye. Merci.
**Again, sorry about the lack of accents.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Wednesdays and Mullets


Today is Wednesday - c'est mercredi. Before you x out of this page because you could care less about the previous sentence, hear me out: Wednesdays in Avignon are crazy! In France, a lot of schools get off Wednesdays and then they have half days on Saturdays. This sounds like a really great idea, right? A mini-vacation in the week! Admittedly, going to school on Saturday would suck, but having a whole day off in the middle of the week would rock.
So Wednesdays in Avignon are crazy because... teenagers are everywhere. Everywhere. You've got your angsty Goth types, your hip quasi-Parisians, your Awkwards, and everyone in between. And, most importantly, you've got your Mullets. There are girl mullets, boy mullets, big kid mullets, little kid mullets, and just plain ugliness. It hurts all of the senses, in some way, I'm sure. There are no sunglasses dark enough to block them out, I have no magic powers to make them invisible, thus, I suffer. We all suffer. What the bananas.
The teenagers in Avignon scare the bananas outta me because they kinda look really angry all the time. And of course I have mini crises of confidence when I walk by them and they're speaking in French because, unless I'm right there with them talking to them, I can't understand them.* (Oh man, it will SO be great when I can understand conversations that I'm not necessarily involved in. As in, it'll be great when I can successfully eavesdrop on French people).

So Wednesdays are Teenager/Mullet days in Avignon. That's why I'm inside right now.

In other news, the Old Lady at the Top of the Stairs (as in, the lady with whom I live) offered Darija and I a French conversation lesson/date tonight after our conversation class at the University. I have a feeling it will be a little complicated, considering my French comprehension abilities are low as are the OLatTofS's hearing abilities. Yay. There will be much yelling and gesticulating, I feel.

Monday night = Melting Potes
Tuesday = salsa dancing at RedZone (the local nightclub. yes, a nightclub. AWK)
Wednesday = karaoke night at the bar L'americain. French karaoke is serious business. I bring in da noise and bring in da funk while the French bring in the angst and the pain. It works.
Thursday = 2nd Thursday of every night is some sort of meeting up with Avignon's LGBT group. I hope to go because then I'll be able to get some info on a gay women's choir I'd like to join (a gwoir, if you will). We'll see. I miss singing fo SHO.**






* An assistant friend, when discussing with me how frustrating it is to learn this French language and our desire to make some French friends has just said to me, "At somepoint you've gotta jump out of the nest and hope you don't wind up a pancake." I couldn't say it better, Dan. Couldn't say it better!
** the two asteriks do not have anything to do with the sentence to which they're attached ("I miss singing fo SHO"). I'd just like to point out that I've been listening to Lisa's "Rock is alive 2" mix from the summer and it is bleeping amazing. Some of the songs include...
"Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire/"All the Swinging Around you" by The New Pornographers/"Stuck Between Stations" by Hold Steady/"Lying is the most fun a girl can have with her clothes on" by Panic! At the Disco/"Whites Only Party" by The Dears
Check 'em out!

Monday, October 8, 2007

Teaching McTeachertons: the First Day! (bah bah buuum)

*

Today I taught for the first time ever.

I stood up in front of seven classes of 20 kids each and taught them how to say "Hello, my name is _____" and "How are you?" and "I'm fine" and "My phone number is ______." I can't freaking believe it - today I kinda became a teacher. For a hot sec, though - let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I haven't had too much time to reflect on the day, seeing as the actual teaching part was a whirlwind of activity (every time I see whirlwind I think of "she can throw a whirling dirvish out of whirl" from The Sound of Music and then I get sad because Julie Andrews can't sing anymore because some doctor messed up her throat and then... well... I digress...) and then after work I came home and hung out with Darija, my roommate/wife, and then the Girls came over (holy cow, I just said that) and we all went to Melting Potes for language lessons avec de la biere. So basically... it is just *now* that I am fully absorbing the day.

What just hit me is the simplest thought about the day: I got up, in front of a bunch of kids I don't know, and I taught them something. It's my hope that they'll remember what we went over next week and that they'll be eager to learn and excited to play games and sing songs with me and all of that but most importantly, for a hot sec, I was feeding these kids information that they were absorbing (albeit probably only momentarily) and it was good. I am doing something my mom does every day, something her mom did before her, something my aunts do, something some of my favorite people do. I think teaching is one of the most noble professions out there and today je l'ai fait. Even though I probably looked and sounded ridiculous and the other teachers were probably thinking "why the heck did she get put into this program?" there is something really incredible about knowing that I taught some kids some stuff. As exhausted as I am, both physically and mentally, from the day, I'm excited to do it again - I can't wait to hear if Anthony can say the American "th" sound, if his sister will come hang out with me during lunch again, if the CP teacher will engage me in conversation at recess again, if the kids will remember their numbers when we do our phone numbers game next week. There's a lot to be nervous about but there's a lot to look forward to and... well... hurrah.

For now, je suis contente.

Now, for actual day:
My day in Elsa Triolet was split up into seven class periods with each teacher's class. So I taught the kids of Pierre, Yannick (who is also la directrice of the school), Magalie, Celine, Valerie, Olivier, and Marina. I taught kids from age 6 to age 11. I taught boys, girls, kids who were shy, kids who were outta control... everyone. Some of the teachers really got in there to help me (which was SO amazing I just wanted to hug them) and some of them threw me into the classroom like Daniel into the lions' pit. It was stressful but great.

With each class I switched it up a little bit, which was important because not each class was the same age group, but also so that I could see at what level each class is. I did a lot of repetition, a lot of "repeat after me" a lot of work in pairs, a lot of singling kids out (although they get shy so I'm not sure if I'll do that a lot), I used visual images (pictures and postcards), and I wrote on the board for visual confirmation of the words/sentences they were hearing. Something that surprised me right away was realizing how necessary it is to use so many teaching techniques in such a short amount of time (many classes were just 1/2 hour long).

Just for future reference, here are the ages of each class:
CP: the littlest ones!: 6-7
CE1: 7-8
CE2: 8-9
CM1: 9-10
CM2: 10-11

I went into today basically completely blind and came out with a better picture of things. First of all, I have a better idea of who knows how to read and who doesn't, who tends to have longer attention spans, who knows how to read and who doesn't, who is a perfectionist and who isn't, etc. etc. What excites me is that most if these kids are eager to learn and definitely eager to please, even when they're exhausted and ready to finish the day.

All in all, despite a few hitches (i.e. starting teaching today when Iw as told I was just going to observe, having one teacher leave the class when the teachers are supposed to remain in the room at all times, having to give commands in French to the little ones because they can't understand me in English and not knowing exactly how to say what I mean in French) I think today was a very positive experience at Elsa Triolet. Here's hoping tomorrow is just as good.

Phew.**

*A note on Katie's party, as promised:
It was basically awesome. Katie invited assistants and Frenchies and it seemed like, literally, the entire world was holed up in her apartment. Kinda like the Noah's Ark of languages, seeing as we had Italians, Columbians, El Salvadorians, Frenchies, Americans, Brits, Germans, etc. all in her two bedroom place. Of course most of us split up into groups where we got to speak our native languages but I also heard a lot of people attempting to speak in different tongues. I, myself, attempted to speak in French to Emma (a Brit) for quite sometime (applause). Lisa says that I have to try to speak for at least 2 hours a day in French. Oh MAN by the end of 20 minutes my brain is exhausted! But I'll try.
So yeah, the party was great and I can't wait to have another. I'm going to have a French friend, dammit, if it's the last thing I do!
**Melting Potes was tonight, again at O'Neill's Irish Pub (does anyone else find this funny?). Bruno, a guy who organizes it, hooked me up with a website for a gay women's choir here in Avignon (I call it a gwoir). I'm pretty dang excited... here's hoping!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Le Stage part Trois: Marseille

So the assistants all went to Marseille.

Now when we all went to Marseille is another story. You know how they gave us all individualized horaires of our week? It turns out that they decided to switch them up on us at the last minute because they're cool* like that. I was supposed to go to Marseille on Wednesday, stay the night, and have Thursday there, but they told me on Monday "whoops, we don't have the reservations with the hotel so you're not going to go." On a scale of one to awesome it was so NOT. It was basically just the primary school teachers from Avignon that they prevented from going and, essentially, kept us from the coolest part of all of orientation. Rarr.

Anyway, so some of us left on Tuesday, others on Wednesday, and I was (re)scheduled to go on Thursday. However, I had free time on Wednesday night and my friends had accommodation at Etap Hotel so I decided to go, although with Ashley from Apt, to Marseille and crash on someone's floor. Glad I did this because I had a great time! I was able to crash on my friends' floor AND crash the dinner they hosted for the assistants so I felt pretty good about it. Yup, there was a dinner provided for the assistants at a nice restaurant in Marseille which I attended without invitation. But that was ok because when we got there, they told us they were expecting many more people. That is because originally there were going to be many more people there but then they cancelled on us. But of course the French educational people didn't tell the restaurant that. What the crud. So I had awesome salmon ravioli and bread and I cling-clinged** my wine glass with assistants from all over the world. The one upside to the incompetence of the French was that there was an abundance of wine due to the drop in attendance.

After dinner and wine we headed to a bar by our hotel and we spent the evening chilling and talking in all different languages and I'm still so shocked and bewildered and pleased to listen to everyone communicate. Good times.

I awoke on Thursday morning to the image of Chloe, my roommate in Marseille, getting dressed and ready to go out at 6:45 am. "Chloe, praytell, what are you doing?" I asked. Turns out she was going to hike up to the Notre Dame de la Garde with Elicia and a Canadian who was studying in Finland. Sounded cool to me so I tagged along.

We took a 20 minute hike wayyyyyyyyyyy uphill to the top of this beautiful Catholic Church. We looked out onto Marseille. It was amazing. Really breathtaking. Really really awesome and exhausting.

The whole point of all of the assistants (finally) being in Marseille on Thursday was to have a giant day of orientation where we were to meet the heads of the French educational system in the Aix-Marseille academy (France's educational system is split into a bunch of regional academies). Of course they didn't really give us all the names properly so I can't remember who I saw speak but I know they were all dreadfully boring and very silly. Especially Monique Lheman, the woman with whom many assistants have had contact the woman who makes most of our lives living hells while we're here. No love for her, for real.

During the talks on Thursday morning, the very important people sat all 270 of us down to tell us how amazing we are. "Vous etes les fenetres au monde!" they kept telling us. I think they told us that we are the doors and windows to the world approximately 20 times. Not a single speaker was charismatic, most were cheesy, and they bored us to tears. There were some awkward moments during the lectures, too, like when Monique Lheman singled out a few assistants. Who'd she single out? The two Chinese assistants. As Celine says, it was like she'd never seen a Chinese person before. Wtf. And she singled out a guy named Scott who plays rugby. She made all of them speak, without warning, in front of all of us. If she'd asked me to do that, I would have punched her in her ovaries, prob. I can't imagine anything more terrifying! I spent most of the morning looking like this.

After our two hour speech we had lunch and then there was another section of orientation in the afternoon at the parliament building of Marseille. What was this part of the orientation about? Um. It was the exact same thing as the first part of Thursday. The exact. same. thing. Monique Lheman spoke, she singled out the Chinese guys and Scott again (although Scott was really smart and had dipped out) and she did all this because she was trying to impress the head of the education whatchamacallit. Literally, she was using us to make her look good. Oh good lord, there was so much brown-nosing on Thursday I really wanted to barf. Grrrrr Monique Lheman you took hours of my life! I want a refund!

So that was the end of orientation in Marseille. For the rest of Thursday, me and a few other assistants took a big hike up so we could have a nice view of Marseille and the Mediterranean. We chilled and it was awesome. After a long day of frustration, we took the TER home to Avignon, food, and relaxation.

Orientation = not fun.

Soon to come:
Friday: Palais des Papes, French educational system's incompetance, and a party at Katie's!







*nope
**cheers-ed
*** She threatened to deport one assistant because one of her folders was missing a document when she had been told months earlier that she'd turned it in perfectly. Awesome

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Le Stage part Deux

Before I arrived in France, I had read all these accounts of the horrors of the French bureaucracy - with the inefficiency, incompetance, apathy, etc. I've always chuckled at these stories, feeling sorry for the people going through them but also thinking "It can't possibly be that bad."

Well, my friends, it is. It fo SHO is.

Yesterday was my second day of "le stage." Turns out my second day was almost as useless as my first day? Why? Well, this time I had all my paperwork, which is good, and we had to meet at l'Inspection Academique at 9:00 to do some other stuff (of course we weren't told what - we were just given a time and place for arrival). When we got to l'IA, we did a repeat of yesterday. Yes. A repeat. They asked us for all our papers, we went around the room and introduced ourselves (there were... fourteen of us... and a lot of us were confused/frustrated... great great emotions flying around), and sat there while the people in charge tried to look like they were in charge and like they knew what they were doing. They struck out on both accounts. Seriously.

We get there and we hand in our dossiers. This time I was alllll ready and I felt really great about it. Only thing was that I didn't have a photocopy of my quittance a loyer and my contract de l'hebergement (documents that prove I have housing). So I handed them to the woman, "M-A," and I'd written a post-it (called Post-It here! Yay) that said "SVP faire une photocopie" and I then SAID "SVP faire une photocopie" and she just ignored me and took my documents. Ummmm hellooooo I need those original, very important, documents back! I really think she was tuning me out because I KNOW I was saying it correctly and then she looked at me and said "what do you want?" and I repeated myself again. Awesome. My self-confidence and my confidence in the French System were through the roof. So she made copies. Phew. Got my originals back. And then we sat. And sat. While they pretended to know what was going on/pretended to be in charge. It was so silly.

OH. My favorite part of the day was when I got "sir-ed" on my way in. Yes, I was mistaken for a boy. This happened a few times in New York this summer but it was my first time in France (although I've been given some strange looks like people are trying to "figure me out" so I'm kinda surprised it's taken this long). Basically we walked into l'IA yesterday and the secretary was speaking to us in French saying "hello, good morning, how are you, nice to meet you" and all these pleasantries. Then she went on to say how nice it was to have foreign assistants in the education department. This is when it happened. As y'all know, French has masculine/feminine words and the word changes depending on who you address. For example: "Bonjour, Madame la Directrice" and "Bonjour, Monsieur le Directeur." Well, in this case, for foreigner it's "etranger" et "etrangere" (forgive the lack of accents. I don't know how to do them on my computer). So the secretary woman starts saying how nice it is to have assistants etrangeres (feminine!) in the IA and then she looks at me and says "etrangers" and then she looks back at the group and changes again. Hahaha. Ok, so I know my hairrrr was all up in its (very stylish) kinda gay way but I was wearing a (semi-tight and simultaneously appropriate) button-down shirt that (surprisingly) shows (somewhat) that I am (unsurprisingly) a female.
What the bananas. I got "sir-ed."

So, despite any frustrations of the day, it was always good to go back and reflect upon how I was "man-ed" in my second week in France.

Back to "le stage part deux."

Then they sent us away. Some of us came from very far away (Paris, Apt, Arles, etc.) and so to have free time in a day when it'd just be easier to have everything squished together was very stupid. Oh well. We all just went and sat at a cafe and vented. We were then told to meet up at a lycee in Avignon for lunch in the school cafeteria.

Where was this lycee? Well, I don't know how far away it was but it took us forty minutes to walk there. Forty minutes! And then, upon our arrival, we were told that they had fun out of food! First we sat around for half an hour (no one new why. no one.) and then once we got in line they were like "whoops no food." Now I didn't mean to be grouchy or anything but it had been a tough morning with the incompetence of our 'leaders' and then to be told there was no food after we'd walked a mile or two to get there. There was really no reason for us to have lunch together. It's not like the women in charge really talked to us. So that was awkward/frustrating. Arrrgh.

Then we got to go have a "formation pedagogique" back at l'IA which was really cool b/c they gave us hints on how to teach (Lord knows I need help with that!). Basically the only helpful part of the day was the afternoon so it would have been way awesome to cancel our unhelpful/redundant morning session and our unappetizing/ill-prepared lunch and just have had us arrive at 2 pm at l'IA for teaching-time.

Grrr. Just a little venting!

Ok now I gotta go shower - I'm trying to get into a lycee (high school) to audit a class so that I can better my understanding of spoken French. Here's hoping 1) I can find the school 2) they don't laugh at me when I ask to leave a letter there 3) I turn it in on time and 4) they accept me.

Ok il faut que je parte!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Man Junk.

Now that I have your attention...

Today was the beginning of "le stage" here for the assistants. This is a week-long orientation for the 1700 of us all over the country and we come from the States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, etc. There are other language assistants here (France is into multilingualism, I guess... or the teachers just want a break...) and the ones I've met come from: Germany, El Salvador, and Italy. Here's hoping to basically re-create the film "L'Auberge Espagnole" with the languages and without the heartbreak and all of that.

What did "le stage" mean for me today?
Well, all of us were sent to our "circonscriptions" to talk to our CP (conseillere pedagogique) about our placement in schools, their expectations for us, stuff like that. We were told our salaries, how to call in sick (we have to have a doctor's note), we were told that we will not get reimbursed for traveling (it's 2.90 E for one trip to Sorgues!), and we were told to be strict with our little kids so things don't get out of hands. We were also told, as the icing on our teaching cakes that "No offense, but you're basically here to replace the tape recorders."

Ah, tact.

Yup, Sylvia Brignatz, the CP of Sorgues and some surrounding towns informed us that, as assistants, we are there to assist and not to be the teacher but to basically just be there for pronunciation. Sweet. I get paid 780 E a month to work two days a week in front of a few classes to help they say "Hello my name is?" Sounds pretty ideal. But it was also quite a shock since we've all been (ok well, I haven't really but I'm starting to now) researching how to teach like mad.

Also, I went to la circonscription a Sorgues with none of my papers (like the cool person that I am) because no one (no one in l'academie, no one from Sorgues, no one from the French embassy, no on in Avignon... no. one.) told us what to expect from this week. So I show up emptyhanded (like an idiot) and I'm told tha tI'm supposed to have photocopies of all my documents to give to my CP. I do have them ("je les ai") but just at my house ("mes papiers sont chez moi"). So that was no good. Luckily I go to watch Celine hand in all her stuff and tomorrow I get to give my papers to the person at the Inspection Academique. Phew!

The rest of "le stage" will continue this week. The little we did know about this week came in an e-mail to us last Friday that gave us very brief outlines of our days. By brief I mean it said the day, the time, and the address where we're supposed to be every day. Sometimes there was a detail like "go to a cafe to go over your documents" or "we'll go have a tour at Palais des Papes." But really, information from the program to the assistants is limited and there's a lot of guesswork going on. ANYway, the main point of this is that they did give us one cool detail/thing to do: we were to head to Marseille (the second biggest city in all of France) in order to meet up with the rest of the assistants in Aix-Marseille (our educational academy) for some training/info sessions. Sounds cool, right? I mean, I heard that Marseille is supposed to be the Brooklyn of France so I'm all ready to go! However, this morning, Sylvie points to that part of our schedule and just says "You know how you're supposed to go to Marseille on Wednesday? No, that's not going to happen. I don't know who decided this or why, but now you're just going on Thursday." What? This is a big bummer because, as one assistant put it, going to Marseille (original plan: go Wednesday morning, sped the night, return on the later TGV on Thursday night) was going to be the highlight of the week. But now? Non. We go for a morning adn afternoon. How much does it cost, roundtrip, to go to Marseille? Um... at least thirty-five euros. That's over fifty bucks for one morning/afternoon in a freaking cool city in France, we have no lodging, and we will not get reimbursed for our trip. Thank you, French Embassy!

The rest of the morning went swimmingly, as Sylvie spoke in slow enough French so that I could understand. Unfortunately, I kept my mouth shut and didn't really say much of everything because I was taking it all in and because Celine and the other assistant, Vidya, were doing the talking. Celine? She's this amazing girl from Florida who's 25, has taught French to middle-schoolers for the past two years, has done amazing outdoor adventures, she's French and American, fluent in French, she's done the assistantship before, and she's freakishly cool. I get to hang out with her. I get to take the bus to and from Sorgues with her! Who's Vidya? K, I don't know her but I do know this: She's Indian, this is her fourth year doing the assistantship, she's getting her Master's at l'Universite d'Avignon in postcolonial Indian literature, she's married to an assistant she met a few years ago ('love will make you do crazy things') and they both now teach in the Avignon area, she got married in India in May and in France in June and she's taught at Celine's schools but not mine. Oh yeah - apparently my schools are the 'trouble schools' so I have a lot to look forward to there. Donc, j'ai compris tout mais je ne parlais rien. Oh well, next time!

And now... here's what you've all been waiting for...

...

MAN JUNK!

Yes, my friends, yes.
Celine and I were walking post-CP meeting through the streets of Sorgues to our local pizza place (yep, we have a local pizza place called Cat's Pizza which is run by a guy with some crazy sideburns) and she looked up for a second and stopped in her tracks. There, on the roof of Sorgues's 'poissonerie' was a man, somewhere between 65 and 75 years old, standing outside completely naked and holding his junk. Yeah, I said it. It was like I was in a French episode of "Friends" and Ugly Naked Man decided to sunbathe. Oh yeah - he was definitely tanning as he stood outside for about two minutes, overlooking the local traffic and covering his naughty bits, then he turned around, facing his house, with is rear facing us. Beautiful local scenery, non?

So I must leave you all on that note. I'd just like to give a shout out about the stirfry dinner me 'n my friends made tonight - freaking delish and we jammed to Celine Dion's French songs all night long. Please remind me later to update on the "Melting Potes" meeting tonight at "O'Neill's Irish Pub" because it was awesome and it was another reminder of why I am here in France.