On the __th/nd day of Christmas, my French life gave to me:
12 hours of travel
11 cows for neighbors
10 language assistants
9 days 'til Christmas
an 8 year old to babysit
7-minus-1 months left of practice
6 hours of time change
5 cards for Christmas
4 loads of laundry
3 pig's blood sausages
2 pieces of luggage
1 life filled with family, friends and love
For further explaination, see below:
12
It might be more, but between the bus, shuttle, taxi, train, and two planes, I think I can safely say it will be greater than or equal to the lovely number douze.
11
I might have made this up because I've never actually counted them all... but I am vachement heureuse to have such friendly voisines. (KB you'd better have caught that French pun or else we cannot be sisters anymore.)
10
From Oregon to Germany to Chile, Colombia and England, my Passeport of Friendship is filled with the world's finest :)
9
I love Christmas, but I'm in no rush for it to arrive... just for Friday.
8
Currently, E is playing with her friend Clem who has the funniest/most adorable little voice I've ever heard. This morning, I thought E and I were forever-friends again because she gave me a chocolate from her Advent calendar (!) and we watched tv together for a minute. But then Clem came over and I was instantaneously forgotten... oh how fickle 8-year-old friendship is. Haha but as for Clem, she's basically in the Hall of Fame for me because every time I see her, she says, "T'es tres belle!" and gives me a bisou so basically I love her.
7
I was getting desperate and trying to make this accurate... I have 6 months left when je reviendrai en France. Which is good because the function of my learning/improvement is just starting to move in the significantly positive direction.
6
Despite the incredibly insightful article that I found online, I have no useful strategy for combatting the inevitable jet lag that will come with trying to rewind my days backward by 6 hours. Haha by the time I am used to it, I'll be on a plane again, heading back to Froggie-a-Go-Go Land, as Georgia Nicholson would say.
5
Yesterday at school, my students learned "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and made Christmas cards. Much to my delight/surprise, at the end of class my student "David" came up to me and gave me his card. (I winked at him once in class -- I was desperate to get him to pay attention and stop distracting people, and THAT was my instinctive reaction! Quelle catastrophe! But miraculously, he's on my side now. Haha) Anyway, after a few other students saw him do that, they gave me their cards also! It made me probably the happiest person alive :)
4
A necessity & my Wednesday tradition.
3
Last night, I went to dinner with the teachers from one of my schools. It was interesting/ridiculous/dreamlike/painful all at once. Part of that was the champagne & red wine working together against me; the other part was being seated at the head of the table in an incredibly visible (and visibly awkward) place; en fin, there was also the fact that of the 13 people at the table, everyone else understood the conversation completely whereas I got probably 2/3 of it (which is truly improvement!)
Alas, the meal began with a salad with three strangely jelloid-looking dark brown cylinders (imagine dumping out a skinny can of beets and turning it the color of a walnut). They stared at me tauntingly, challenging me to wimp out but I decided to fight and eat it, regardless. A teacher at the other end of the table yelled to the teacher next to me to tell me what it was and I cried out, "Non! APRES!" before he could say anything, because I knew that if I knew what I was eating, I would immediately stop. But it tasted okay, so I continued.
However, the more that people asked, "Does she know what she's eating?" and even asked another teacher, "You ate that?!" the slower I was able to swallow, and ended up only eating about a half of one, leaving the other 2.5 abandoned. Afterward, I discovered it was boiled pigs' blood mixed with something else (after I heard sang du porc I basically stopped being able to HEAR).
The next course was quite good with salmon, and green beans wrapped with bacon. There was a strange orange sponge-like circle, and a mushy gray thing that I took two bites of and left, seeing that other people had not finished everything either.
This was followed by the cheese course, and luckily I avoided the fromage blanc (people will tell you it's like yogurt, but it's only like yogurt if you like yogurt with chunks and liquid) but then I was presented with this massive selection of yellow-and-green spotted cheeses and asked, "Qu'est-ce que vous voudriez?" I kind of stuttered and asked, "Quel est le meilleur?" looking desperately to the director of the school for some kind of help. He picked le fromage du pays, et le fromage nectar which were okay, but I am totally not une gourmande and I cannot appreciate the flavor of barn, with a hint of mold. Tant pis. I tried to wash away the flavor of the cheese with massive hunks of bread and huge swigs of wine, imagining the scene from "Ratatouille" where there are fireworks and magical music while he eats the things all together.
Dessert was quite good -- une tarte aux fruits, and the crust reminded me of a sugar cookie!
By that point in the evening, however, I realized that my metaphoric isolation was literally manifested as I sat at the head of this table of people laughing and talking a million km per hour, I couldn't understand ANYTHING because I had used up all of my linguistic reserves and the wine was having its way with me, no one was talking to me, yet there I was. In a little restaurant in France, surrounded by teachers, pig's blood sloshing around in my stomache, thinking about the concept of the non-person and how, without the sunshine of the wine, I might be sad and yet, I was simply just sleepy and observant, like a scientist in a lab full of French people, or like "The Last Action Hero" having lept unknowingly into a film, where the only person watching it happen instead of making it happen, was me.
2
Having already filled one suitcase with presents (and the occassional homeward-bound clothing item for packing purposes), I am going to load up my second this afternoon/evening. Once my laundry is done. Hooray for having a seche-linge, unlike most of the French people around here (or so I imagine because they hang their clothes outside in the snow sometimes, which I wouldn't do if I had a seche-linge... but what do I know about being French? Clearly, not much haha).
1
You are part of that if you're reading this now :) Merci beaucoup pour tous. Je vous aime et je suis tres contente que vouz ayez avec moi pendant ma grande aventure.
16 December 2008
15 December 2008
Snow Day
It seems that I bring the snow wherever I go.
Last year when I started my student teaching in GR, I was told specifically, "Don't expect to ever get a snow day -- GRPS never closes!" and then proceeded to have three very-needed snow days.
Similarly, when I first got here, everyone said that it hardly ever snows and definitely not before February or March. What do you know, last night they announced a snow day!
And I LOVE the way they announced it -- basically, they didn't. Randomly, The Host Mom called one of the neighbors to tell them that their chocolates from the "Children of the World" fundraiser had arrived and the neighbor told her there was no school. She called a few people from the newspaper who all confirmed it. One person said that the teacher from school had called one parent and asked them to start a phone tree, but how reliable is that? Not. It wasn't on the news AND my boss didn't even tell me -- I called her, and she was like, "Oh yeah, I was going to tell you..." Haha nice.
But alas, I spent the morning with the boys and it passed relatively well. Tt was playing the Harry Potter video game and I convinced T to help me with school stuff (in turn keeping him away from Tt, who he would inevitably annoy, and who would inevitably smack him, leading to tears/drama/headaches). I asked T to help me make some example Christmas Cards to use as models for my students this week, because only he could make a card beautiful enough to show. Then we started watching Spiderman 3 (en francais, bien sur) and had a weird puzzle war with a Lucky Luke puzzle that was missing 15 pieces exactly -- they counted 15 times to make sure haha.
This week is going to be easy-- I have 2 classes tomorrow morning, and then I'm going to finish my last-minute shopping in the afternoon. That night, I'm going to a Christmas Dinner w/ the teachers from one school, which should be interesting... I'm really intimidated by them, and they speak rapid-fire French which I don't often understand. So I feel like this might be the most awkward 4 hours of my life, but thank God for the diminishing effect of wine... Wednesday I don't have any classes, so I am going to pack everything & do my laundry. Then Thursday morning, I'm teaching for an hour and then going to Lyon, where I'll stay until Friday morning when I get on the plane and come home! Hooray!
Last year when I started my student teaching in GR, I was told specifically, "Don't expect to ever get a snow day -- GRPS never closes!" and then proceeded to have three very-needed snow days.
Similarly, when I first got here, everyone said that it hardly ever snows and definitely not before February or March. What do you know, last night they announced a snow day!
And I LOVE the way they announced it -- basically, they didn't. Randomly, The Host Mom called one of the neighbors to tell them that their chocolates from the "Children of the World" fundraiser had arrived and the neighbor told her there was no school. She called a few people from the newspaper who all confirmed it. One person said that the teacher from school had called one parent and asked them to start a phone tree, but how reliable is that? Not. It wasn't on the news AND my boss didn't even tell me -- I called her, and she was like, "Oh yeah, I was going to tell you..." Haha nice.
But alas, I spent the morning with the boys and it passed relatively well. Tt was playing the Harry Potter video game and I convinced T to help me with school stuff (in turn keeping him away from Tt, who he would inevitably annoy, and who would inevitably smack him, leading to tears/drama/headaches). I asked T to help me make some example Christmas Cards to use as models for my students this week, because only he could make a card beautiful enough to show. Then we started watching Spiderman 3 (en francais, bien sur) and had a weird puzzle war with a Lucky Luke puzzle that was missing 15 pieces exactly -- they counted 15 times to make sure haha.
This week is going to be easy-- I have 2 classes tomorrow morning, and then I'm going to finish my last-minute shopping in the afternoon. That night, I'm going to a Christmas Dinner w/ the teachers from one school, which should be interesting... I'm really intimidated by them, and they speak rapid-fire French which I don't often understand. So I feel like this might be the most awkward 4 hours of my life, but thank God for the diminishing effect of wine... Wednesday I don't have any classes, so I am going to pack everything & do my laundry. Then Thursday morning, I'm teaching for an hour and then going to Lyon, where I'll stay until Friday morning when I get on the plane and come home! Hooray!
11 December 2008
Ridiculous Side Note
I also thought I would share this gem of uselessness with you.
On my daily homepage, I have all of these cool-but-random things that pop up, one of my favorites being the "Daily How-To" which often includes crafts, worst-case scenario survival, etc.
Well, yesterday I was delighted to see something quite useful -- I thought -- an article about avoiding jet lag! How perfect for me and my upcoming 6-hour time change! (I thought.)
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Jet-Lag
Perhaps people would be understanding if I explained 6 weeks before leaving that I was readjusting my time schedule, and I was completely missing all of my classes simply as a result of "my" time schedule being 6 hours behind everyone else's.
Haha, yes, of course, they would understand.
On my daily homepage, I have all of these cool-but-random things that pop up, one of my favorites being the "Daily How-To" which often includes crafts, worst-case scenario survival, etc.
Well, yesterday I was delighted to see something quite useful -- I thought -- an article about avoiding jet lag! How perfect for me and my upcoming 6-hour time change! (I thought.)
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Jet-Lag
Perhaps people would be understanding if I explained 6 weeks before leaving that I was readjusting my time schedule, and I was completely missing all of my classes simply as a result of "my" time schedule being 6 hours behind everyone else's.
Haha, yes, of course, they would understand.
Je suis vraiment contente! :)
"Happiness isn't something you seek -- it's something you do." I read this quote in a gorgeous book in one of the dangerous shops where I spent a ton of money today ("I will need this book for my classroom library!") Newly added to my collection are:
Entre les Murs -- a book that became a movie about a French teacher! (How could I resist??)
e.e. cummings 95 poems -- if you appreciate e.e. cummings in English, you can't imagine how romantic, ingenius and wonderful his writing is en francais! C'est tellement magnifique!
24 Histoires Merveilleuses pour Attendre Noel -- truly for my classroom (haha and me), this has Christmas stories with gorgeous illustrations that I plan on reading with my students in the countdown to the most wonderful time of the year
The day started out as somewhat of a disaster as I panicked at the prefecture, thinking I didn't have my passeport with me, meaning that my rendez-vous was for nothing. Alas, after leaving two frantic messages on unanswered cell phones, I realized that I did, in fact, have it along with all of the other necessary bureaucratic hula-hoops I spent a week negociating and neatly organizing. Haha but what fun is life without a bit of useless drama?
After the appointment, I spent the morning with a couple of assistants, shopping and drinking amazing caramel hot chocolate, then traded them for another assistant with whom I had lunch in my favorite Kebab shop. (The lady anticipates my order by saying, "sans oignons!" before I can say it.)
My classes were without extreme drama today, thankfully. After my few hours of school, I returned to the prefecture to pick up my new recipisee, which will allow me back into the country after I go home. I have yet another cool thing in my passeport! :)
On my way out of the prefecture I literally stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this giant black & brown dog standing right outside the door. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but I literally could NOT make myself continue walking towards certain immediate death. The receptionist laughed and tried convincing me that it was okay, but I was like, "Oh, non merci" until I saw a guy literally PET the beast! So timidly, I asked, "Il est gentil?" and she assured me that he was and proceeded to invite him into the building.
Only in France!
At this point in the day, my useless-but-dry-and-warm boots were KILLING my feet so I crawled onto the bus to go home. But when I arrived chez moi, I was unhappily met by an un-shoveled walk & drive way. So, feeling strangely motivated - and blissfully unaware of my feet- I went in search of the shovel and decided to make myself useful to the family in a way that magically did not involve children. It was an awesome idea until I realized how huge the driveway was, and how heavy the wet snow was. Ugh. Alas, I definitely left some patches of snow where I felt like it wasn't really in the way... haha I amaze myself by how unambitious I am sometimes! But who's going to complain about free labor? Personne.
Now, I'm pathetically sore, but I can say that I've officially shoveled a French driveway! Who would have ever thought?! Life is so good!
AND... I'll be home in one week from tomorrow!! Hooray! Hooree! Hoorizzle!
Entre les Murs -- a book that became a movie about a French teacher! (How could I resist??)
e.e. cummings 95 poems -- if you appreciate e.e. cummings in English, you can't imagine how romantic, ingenius and wonderful his writing is en francais! C'est tellement magnifique!
24 Histoires Merveilleuses pour Attendre Noel -- truly for my classroom (haha and me), this has Christmas stories with gorgeous illustrations that I plan on reading with my students in the countdown to the most wonderful time of the year
The day started out as somewhat of a disaster as I panicked at the prefecture, thinking I didn't have my passeport with me, meaning that my rendez-vous was for nothing. Alas, after leaving two frantic messages on unanswered cell phones, I realized that I did, in fact, have it along with all of the other necessary bureaucratic hula-hoops I spent a week negociating and neatly organizing. Haha but what fun is life without a bit of useless drama?
After the appointment, I spent the morning with a couple of assistants, shopping and drinking amazing caramel hot chocolate, then traded them for another assistant with whom I had lunch in my favorite Kebab shop. (The lady anticipates my order by saying, "sans oignons!" before I can say it.)
My classes were without extreme drama today, thankfully. After my few hours of school, I returned to the prefecture to pick up my new recipisee, which will allow me back into the country after I go home. I have yet another cool thing in my passeport! :)
On my way out of the prefecture I literally stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this giant black & brown dog standing right outside the door. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but I literally could NOT make myself continue walking towards certain immediate death. The receptionist laughed and tried convincing me that it was okay, but I was like, "Oh, non merci" until I saw a guy literally PET the beast! So timidly, I asked, "Il est gentil?" and she assured me that he was and proceeded to invite him into the building.
Only in France!
At this point in the day, my useless-but-dry-and-warm boots were KILLING my feet so I crawled onto the bus to go home. But when I arrived chez moi, I was unhappily met by an un-shoveled walk & drive way. So, feeling strangely motivated - and blissfully unaware of my feet- I went in search of the shovel and decided to make myself useful to the family in a way that magically did not involve children. It was an awesome idea until I realized how huge the driveway was, and how heavy the wet snow was. Ugh. Alas, I definitely left some patches of snow where I felt like it wasn't really in the way... haha I amaze myself by how unambitious I am sometimes! But who's going to complain about free labor? Personne.
Now, I'm pathetically sore, but I can say that I've officially shoveled a French driveway! Who would have ever thought?! Life is so good!
AND... I'll be home in one week from tomorrow!! Hooray! Hooree! Hoorizzle!
10 December 2008
SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHhhhh how wonderful!
I woke up this morning to a world of white! Everything is covered in about an inch and a half of snow!!
Now, it really feels like Christmas :)
I woke up this morning to a world of white! Everything is covered in about an inch and a half of snow!!
Now, it really feels like Christmas :)
09 December 2008
Genre Theory STRIKES AGAIN!
Random Aside of a Self-Indulgent/Philosophical (?) Nature
I am a person who loves organization, and hates, hates, hates this blog because of its constant unsystematic randomness.
To completely understand the struggle, you have to also understand that I didn't really want to have a blog in the first place. Because I don't know who my audience is, really, and I am not a good judge of what is interesting about my life and what is not. So any insecurity I have of being self-absorbed and completely unhinged (clearly, a great and deep-seeded one) is magnified when I present it all in print and it just lingers out in cyberspace. Yet, on the other hand, there is always the chance that something interesting could be found here that would actually interest someone. And also, perhaps most significantly, everyone who supports me financially or otherwise wants to know what I'm actually doing whilst living this life of leisure and not following the road most trampled on.
And there is the narcicisstic nature of the blog in general, which I have thought about in depth and discussed with my professor/friend about at length before actually commencing. (Before accepting the importance of genre theory, I admit, I MOCKED IT along with my other guilty classmates. But I learned! Our running joke was that we could incorporate genre theory into everything -- and it turns out the joke was actually on us, as we CAN! It rules the way the world works, and we were stupid to fight and mock rather than delight in and embrace. But that is a whole different story altogether...)
It's awesome to think every random thought, etc. is fascinating and worth reading about, but it's really not the case. And it is TEMPTING to abuse my captive & loyal audience because, without proper reflection and editing before posting, it would be oh-so-easy to just say n'importe quoi and let you deduce your own conclusions about me/my life/etc.
However, I care far too much about my persona so I hide a thing or two, and I exagere more often than less, and hopefully that makes this blog more art than trash. But who can say? And what can you do? Rien, bien sur. Clearly, I am the forest and I can't see the trees. Or something along those lines.
So now that I've come clean about all of that, I will indulge, but hopefully pas trop.
More on Life In France
The Host Family got a Christmas tree this afternoon! I was happy to see it decorated; surprised to learn that it is French tradition to use only red and gold ornaments, representing the forbbiden fruit (red apple) and potentially riches (? she wasn't sure); sad to know that there is really only one popular Christmas song here and the kids refused to sing the right words, for some reason so I'm none the wiser; AND astonished by the fact that only one person decorated the tree. It was not a family event! Unless you count the collective chaos as an event, which I, in fact, might.
Picture the scene: The beau sapin is in the corner of the living room, growing grander with every red and gold ornament carefully arranged on its limbs by The Host Mom. T is talking to his grandparents on the phone about his dent qui bouge (loose tooth), while E is singing an impromptu, self-composed Christmas song, while Tt is playing the RECORDER and The Host Dad is vacuuming the tile floor. And then there is me -- sitting somewhat stupified on the couch, watching it all unfold.
Alas, I am filled with Christmas cheer! People are hilarious and when I am not responsible for children, and I am not the one yelling at them without cease, I really like being around them. :)
School yesterday was a disaster, which was good because
1. it made me realize I HAVE to ask for help sometimes, no matter how much I want to be super teacher of the century
2. it made today's classes seem like something out of an education textbook (aka completely ideal, cookie-cutter kids who never do anything wrong, and lessons that go perfectly)
I think the host family was a bit afraid of me last night at dinner, because I was so emotionally drained that I could hardly get up the energy to converse. The Host Mom eventually asked me, very hesitantly, how classes went and basically all I could say was, "C'etait l'infer." There was one kid who LITERALLY drew on his own face with a blue marker. What kind of teacher doesn't notice that as it's happening?!
With another student, I asked him if he could behave himself and stay in the class, or if he needed to leave, to which he responded, "Ca m'est egal dans les deux cas" (I don't care either way) and I was like, "MOI NON PLUS!" (Me either) which I tried to shove back into my mouth even as the words were stampeding outward. Shame, shame, shame on me.
However, as I spent more and more time with the children of the corn (aka the front corner of my CE1 class) I realized that I just simply cannot do it alone.
There are some things I can practice and improve at until I succeed. But the way I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of to get those kids to listen at the expense of everyone else is absurd.
This whole system is completely absurd. I am expected to walk into these classes a month or more after the school year started, not having any sort of real power (can't give homework, can't give consequences because I'm not the "Real Teacher") and effectively teach these classes of 30 kids while the teacher is off doing n'importe quoi on his free time? It's so stupid, I can hardly even stand it. And what really makes me mad is that I get the sense that he doesn't really care if the kids learn or not. Because if he did, wouldn't he be in there watching me and making sure I wasn't just wasting 45 precious minutes? Or, maybe even -- I don't know -- helping me since he is an older teacher who probably knows a lot more than I do about how to actually teach.
Haha okay so when I started, I really did have Christmas cheer! But then I went off on that rant. Now I'm literally exhausted, so I'm going to read as much of "A Tout Jamais" (A Walk to Remember in French!) as I can before I fall asleep.
AND because I figured out the cause of my annoying inability to sleep through the night & fixed it -- my watch was beeping once every hour, and I think I would wake up but not realize what had woken me up -- I plan on sleeping comme j'etais morte ce soir.
Bon nuit! A bientot.
I am a person who loves organization, and hates, hates, hates this blog because of its constant unsystematic randomness.
To completely understand the struggle, you have to also understand that I didn't really want to have a blog in the first place. Because I don't know who my audience is, really, and I am not a good judge of what is interesting about my life and what is not. So any insecurity I have of being self-absorbed and completely unhinged (clearly, a great and deep-seeded one) is magnified when I present it all in print and it just lingers out in cyberspace. Yet, on the other hand, there is always the chance that something interesting could be found here that would actually interest someone. And also, perhaps most significantly, everyone who supports me financially or otherwise wants to know what I'm actually doing whilst living this life of leisure and not following the road most trampled on.
And there is the narcicisstic nature of the blog in general, which I have thought about in depth and discussed with my professor/friend about at length before actually commencing. (Before accepting the importance of genre theory, I admit, I MOCKED IT along with my other guilty classmates. But I learned! Our running joke was that we could incorporate genre theory into everything -- and it turns out the joke was actually on us, as we CAN! It rules the way the world works, and we were stupid to fight and mock rather than delight in and embrace. But that is a whole different story altogether...)
It's awesome to think every random thought, etc. is fascinating and worth reading about, but it's really not the case. And it is TEMPTING to abuse my captive & loyal audience because, without proper reflection and editing before posting, it would be oh-so-easy to just say n'importe quoi and let you deduce your own conclusions about me/my life/etc.
However, I care far too much about my persona so I hide a thing or two, and I exagere more often than less, and hopefully that makes this blog more art than trash. But who can say? And what can you do? Rien, bien sur. Clearly, I am the forest and I can't see the trees. Or something along those lines.
So now that I've come clean about all of that, I will indulge, but hopefully pas trop.
More on Life In France
The Host Family got a Christmas tree this afternoon! I was happy to see it decorated; surprised to learn that it is French tradition to use only red and gold ornaments, representing the forbbiden fruit (red apple) and potentially riches (? she wasn't sure); sad to know that there is really only one popular Christmas song here and the kids refused to sing the right words, for some reason so I'm none the wiser; AND astonished by the fact that only one person decorated the tree. It was not a family event! Unless you count the collective chaos as an event, which I, in fact, might.
Picture the scene: The beau sapin is in the corner of the living room, growing grander with every red and gold ornament carefully arranged on its limbs by The Host Mom. T is talking to his grandparents on the phone about his dent qui bouge (loose tooth), while E is singing an impromptu, self-composed Christmas song, while Tt is playing the RECORDER and The Host Dad is vacuuming the tile floor. And then there is me -- sitting somewhat stupified on the couch, watching it all unfold.
Alas, I am filled with Christmas cheer! People are hilarious and when I am not responsible for children, and I am not the one yelling at them without cease, I really like being around them. :)
School yesterday was a disaster, which was good because
1. it made me realize I HAVE to ask for help sometimes, no matter how much I want to be super teacher of the century
2. it made today's classes seem like something out of an education textbook (aka completely ideal, cookie-cutter kids who never do anything wrong, and lessons that go perfectly)
I think the host family was a bit afraid of me last night at dinner, because I was so emotionally drained that I could hardly get up the energy to converse. The Host Mom eventually asked me, very hesitantly, how classes went and basically all I could say was, "C'etait l'infer." There was one kid who LITERALLY drew on his own face with a blue marker. What kind of teacher doesn't notice that as it's happening?!
With another student, I asked him if he could behave himself and stay in the class, or if he needed to leave, to which he responded, "Ca m'est egal dans les deux cas" (I don't care either way) and I was like, "MOI NON PLUS!" (Me either) which I tried to shove back into my mouth even as the words were stampeding outward. Shame, shame, shame on me.
However, as I spent more and more time with the children of the corn (aka the front corner of my CE1 class) I realized that I just simply cannot do it alone.
There are some things I can practice and improve at until I succeed. But the way I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of to get those kids to listen at the expense of everyone else is absurd.
This whole system is completely absurd. I am expected to walk into these classes a month or more after the school year started, not having any sort of real power (can't give homework, can't give consequences because I'm not the "Real Teacher") and effectively teach these classes of 30 kids while the teacher is off doing n'importe quoi on his free time? It's so stupid, I can hardly even stand it. And what really makes me mad is that I get the sense that he doesn't really care if the kids learn or not. Because if he did, wouldn't he be in there watching me and making sure I wasn't just wasting 45 precious minutes? Or, maybe even -- I don't know -- helping me since he is an older teacher who probably knows a lot more than I do about how to actually teach.
Haha okay so when I started, I really did have Christmas cheer! But then I went off on that rant. Now I'm literally exhausted, so I'm going to read as much of "A Tout Jamais" (A Walk to Remember in French!) as I can before I fall asleep.
AND because I figured out the cause of my annoying inability to sleep through the night & fixed it -- my watch was beeping once every hour, and I think I would wake up but not realize what had woken me up -- I plan on sleeping comme j'etais morte ce soir.
Bon nuit! A bientot.
08 December 2008
Missing: Everything
Captive audience, be warned. I don't want sympathy; I just want to say it.
The cold air here reaches inside of your throat, scraping your trachea, leaving your insides trembling.
The cold air here reaches inside of your throat, scraping your trachea, leaving your insides trembling.
06 December 2008
"No Children, No Cry" & The Great Balloon Launch
I swear, every day I become less and less eager to have children.
Instead of beautiful accordion music echoing off of narrow city streets, the soundtrack to my life is strains of, "Je n'ai MARRE!" amongst sobs and wails, and the sharp sound of French frustration and exasperated sighs.
HOW DO PEOPLE KEEP THEIR SANITY WHILST RAISING KIDS? I do not have a clue. Supposely, it's easier if they're your own but yikes! This is craziness!
Luckily, my bus to the sweet sound of English-speaking friends & SILENCE arrives in 37 minutes. Hallelujah!
Despite my tiredness and "avoir marre" with being around crying children, I had a great week! The Christmas decorations up around town are amazing, and it makes me so excited for the approaching holidays! I spent quite a bit of time with the other assistants, which was great. School went pretty well, and I started researching/planning my rapidly-approaching February trip to PARIS with JB. (PARIS!!! And JB!!! Yay!)
Yesterday evening, I experienced probably the COOLEST thing I've seen in France yet. The whole town is raising money for the Telethon, a charity for children with degenerative diseases, so everywhere you go, there are different things happening. (I'd just like to clarify that I was completely confused, because I was thinking that a telethon was a set thing where you call in & donate money. But clearly, that is not what this is here. Although that may be part of it? I'm not sure... haha -- again, welcome to my life).
The school where I work on Tuesdays and Fridays was having a bake sale, where for 2 Euros the kids could buy une brioche and receive a white card in return that would be attached to a balloon and later released by all of the students at once. The school's address was written on one side of the card, and the students all decorated the other side... that way, if someone finds the balloon later, they can mail it back & the kids will know how far their balloons went! I guess last year one ended up in Germany! :)
The kids were all SO excited about it, and I loved being there to see it all! There was so much excitement in the air, and the kids were all bursting with anticipation before the director of the school gave them the OK to let the balloons go. It was BEAUTIFUL to see when the balloons -- yellow, pink, blue, orange, green, purple -- all floated up together against the greyblue sky. A wave of cheers burst out from the children, all standing in the school yard with their heads all tilted back, eyes fixed on their balloons, scurrying off into the great unknown.
Instead of beautiful accordion music echoing off of narrow city streets, the soundtrack to my life is strains of, "Je n'ai MARRE!" amongst sobs and wails, and the sharp sound of French frustration and exasperated sighs.
HOW DO PEOPLE KEEP THEIR SANITY WHILST RAISING KIDS? I do not have a clue. Supposely, it's easier if they're your own but yikes! This is craziness!
Luckily, my bus to the sweet sound of English-speaking friends & SILENCE arrives in 37 minutes. Hallelujah!
Despite my tiredness and "avoir marre" with being around crying children, I had a great week! The Christmas decorations up around town are amazing, and it makes me so excited for the approaching holidays! I spent quite a bit of time with the other assistants, which was great. School went pretty well, and I started researching/planning my rapidly-approaching February trip to PARIS with JB. (PARIS!!! And JB!!! Yay!)
Yesterday evening, I experienced probably the COOLEST thing I've seen in France yet. The whole town is raising money for the Telethon, a charity for children with degenerative diseases, so everywhere you go, there are different things happening. (I'd just like to clarify that I was completely confused, because I was thinking that a telethon was a set thing where you call in & donate money. But clearly, that is not what this is here. Although that may be part of it? I'm not sure... haha -- again, welcome to my life).
The school where I work on Tuesdays and Fridays was having a bake sale, where for 2 Euros the kids could buy une brioche and receive a white card in return that would be attached to a balloon and later released by all of the students at once. The school's address was written on one side of the card, and the students all decorated the other side... that way, if someone finds the balloon later, they can mail it back & the kids will know how far their balloons went! I guess last year one ended up in Germany! :)
The kids were all SO excited about it, and I loved being there to see it all! There was so much excitement in the air, and the kids were all bursting with anticipation before the director of the school gave them the OK to let the balloons go. It was BEAUTIFUL to see when the balloons -- yellow, pink, blue, orange, green, purple -- all floated up together against the greyblue sky. A wave of cheers burst out from the children, all standing in the school yard with their heads all tilted back, eyes fixed on their balloons, scurrying off into the great unknown.
02 December 2008
The teacher from l'infer, and another funny day.
I officially have a favorite class, which I realized today as they were brightly singing "Once There was a Snowman" with such enthusiam and uninhibited gusto, it seriously made me laugh. It was wonderful. I was so happy I even winked at one of the students!
Then I somehow missed the bus. I read the schedule wrong and was waiting for about 10 minutes at the bus stop when I decided to just double check in case. And I was definitely 5 minutes early for when I thought the bus was leaving... and 15 minutes late for when it actually did leave. It was beautiful, though, so I decided to just walk.
Well, call me the connossieur of picking up rides from middle-aged ladies, wouldn't you know someone pulled over and offered me a ride! She was one of the neighbors, so I gladly accepted. Quelle chance encore!
The rest of the afternoon was sort of uneventful; I did laundry and bought a couple of books in French, one of which made me laugh like an insane person at the bus stop.
And then the kids came home. Dinner was crazy, as I tried pathetically to remove the skins from the boiled sausages (such a trick!) and then AFTERWARD -- oh my gosh. Tt wanted to play school, and quickly proved to be a teacher from l'infer. It was more like war than school, and his brother obviously didn't want to play, but every time he would try and quit Tt would try and "punish" him as the teacher. Clearly, this didn't last long. Luckily, this was the first time ever that T went to sleep without making me want to kill myself.
Faux.
Ahh! I was wrong! I had a very bad nightmare, and I didn't sleep well at all.
So much for my theory... haha
So much for my theory... haha
01 December 2008
"Cultivate Your Garden" and whatnot.
I AM SO HAPPY, the kind of fleeting, all-consuming DELIGHT that seems to bubble through your veins and stretch the limits of your skin, like it wants OUT! You know that kind?
The best thing is, this fleeting bliss is going to last me until I fall asleep so I will have good dreams, maybe even French good dreams. And then I'll wake up tomorrow and it will be a good DAY. If I could bottle this, I would.
But here is the gist of it:
I feel CONTENT. It seems like the first of December is a really nice time for this sense of sanded-edges, and well-worn paths... like this is a good time for me to think, I am happy here, as I know I'm about to go home soon. I like it here.
It's so awesomely "Zen" if you will - the amount of temperance I am practicing... B.Franklin would be proud. I'm proud, actually. Who would have thought "France" = "Land of Temperance?" Not me. But alas, here I am, Miss (or should I say, Mademoiselle) Temperance. And happily so. The balance - the equilibrium. It's all so delicate and magical. Thank you, Mr. Francis, for Siddartha & refusing to attend the Mandatory Staff Meetings in defense of your class that was so inaccurately called a "blow-off class." I still have my numen, even though I never had it once on days when he would check for it. (Murphy operates in Zen & Zenless places, I guess).
Do you know in French it's still "tao?"
In other news, that might completely nullify all that I've just said, I am excited because I found T's Christmas present today (finally!) I've been looking all over for the Cars DVD en francais, and I couldn't find it anywhere. Today I found it, but it was in a 2-pack with Ratatouille, which we've watched 238497234 times already. So what did the Nuggets employee do? Oh, he opened the box & sold me the one DVD. I was astounded! Qu'est-ce qui s'est passe? I wondered. But apparently, this is normal. I still felt like it was my birthday, however.
I keep meaning to mention a little sidenote about my LEAST favorite thing about this town: the PocketRockIts are alive and well here, rather than safely burried in my distant memories of "La Bamba" and my basement when we were very young. It is as if everyone's secret (or not-so-secret) desire to be the star of their own movie with the perfect soundtrack playing in the background is realized here, DAILY, by the adolescents. It's horrifying.
If they had something meaningful, musical and/or interesting, I might feel differently. But there are some facons of life here that I can't grasp, nor do I have any desire to do so -- and this is numero un on my list. Ipods are cool because you can pretend to be in a movie, without annoying everyone else with your whiny/horrifying soundtrack. Just wait... one of these days, my temperance is going to evaporate and I am going to go crazy on some self-absorbed, musically-tasteless ado on the bus... haha with my awesome American accent, THIS would be a disastrous movie scene in itself. It is painful to imagine. Really, I know I'm way too timid with my French to really do that. But I am getting better at yelling in French at school. Haha I doubt that this makes me a better teacher, but it DOES help me get my point across clearly. C'est tres utile, I must say.
Alas. I cultivate my garden. I finished the fourth book today! Tomorrow, I begin Planning for Paris with my "Let's Go to France On a Budget" book.
The best thing is, this fleeting bliss is going to last me until I fall asleep so I will have good dreams, maybe even French good dreams. And then I'll wake up tomorrow and it will be a good DAY. If I could bottle this, I would.
But here is the gist of it:
I feel CONTENT. It seems like the first of December is a really nice time for this sense of sanded-edges, and well-worn paths... like this is a good time for me to think, I am happy here, as I know I'm about to go home soon. I like it here.
It's so awesomely "Zen" if you will - the amount of temperance I am practicing... B.Franklin would be proud. I'm proud, actually. Who would have thought "France" = "Land of Temperance?" Not me. But alas, here I am, Miss (or should I say, Mademoiselle) Temperance. And happily so. The balance - the equilibrium. It's all so delicate and magical. Thank you, Mr. Francis, for Siddartha & refusing to attend the Mandatory Staff Meetings in defense of your class that was so inaccurately called a "blow-off class." I still have my numen, even though I never had it once on days when he would check for it. (Murphy operates in Zen & Zenless places, I guess).
Do you know in French it's still "tao?"
In other news, that might completely nullify all that I've just said, I am excited because I found T's Christmas present today (finally!) I've been looking all over for the Cars DVD en francais, and I couldn't find it anywhere. Today I found it, but it was in a 2-pack with Ratatouille, which we've watched 238497234 times already. So what did the Nuggets employee do? Oh, he opened the box & sold me the one DVD. I was astounded! Qu'est-ce qui s'est passe? I wondered. But apparently, this is normal. I still felt like it was my birthday, however.
I keep meaning to mention a little sidenote about my LEAST favorite thing about this town: the PocketRockIts are alive and well here, rather than safely burried in my distant memories of "La Bamba" and my basement when we were very young. It is as if everyone's secret (or not-so-secret) desire to be the star of their own movie with the perfect soundtrack playing in the background is realized here, DAILY, by the adolescents. It's horrifying.
If they had something meaningful, musical and/or interesting, I might feel differently. But there are some facons of life here that I can't grasp, nor do I have any desire to do so -- and this is numero un on my list. Ipods are cool because you can pretend to be in a movie, without annoying everyone else with your whiny/horrifying soundtrack. Just wait... one of these days, my temperance is going to evaporate and I am going to go crazy on some self-absorbed, musically-tasteless ado on the bus... haha with my awesome American accent, THIS would be a disastrous movie scene in itself. It is painful to imagine. Really, I know I'm way too timid with my French to really do that. But I am getting better at yelling in French at school. Haha I doubt that this makes me a better teacher, but it DOES help me get my point across clearly. C'est tres utile, I must say.
Alas. I cultivate my garden. I finished the fourth book today! Tomorrow, I begin Planning for Paris with my "Let's Go to France On a Budget" book.
Best Francegiving Ever!
So although I thought Thanksgiving had come and gone already, I was very wrong. Yesterday was the REAL Thanksgiving -- our "Francegiving."
Our celebration was truly traditional in that we met up at 2 in the afternoon and didn't leave until about 10, eating and drinking all day, watching "A Christmas Story" and fighting each other for space in the kitchen - either to cook, or to clean (collectively). Everyone made or brought something to contribute so our meal, in total, consisted of:
Boissons
Champagne + black currant sirop (un kir royale)
Stellas
Red wine + white wine
Aperatifs
Chip Dip
Brie + carmelized onions + baguette
Assorted raw vegetables + home-made Ranch dressing
Entree
Turkey
Stuffing
Home-made gravy
Mashed potatoes
Vegetables
Green bean casserole
Salad
Traditional English pudding
Dessert
Chocolate whiskey mousse
Pavalova
Basically, in Thanksgiving style, everyone was in food comas most of the day, and the walk home was very welcome after over-indulging to the extreme. We said the Robbie Burns toast (yay!) and then sporatically during dinner people would exclaim, "I'm thankful for...!" and we would all "hear, hear!" and feel happy to be together. :)
It was WONDERFUL! And I loved being part of the other assistants' First Thanksgiving ever!
Our celebration was truly traditional in that we met up at 2 in the afternoon and didn't leave until about 10, eating and drinking all day, watching "A Christmas Story" and fighting each other for space in the kitchen - either to cook, or to clean (collectively). Everyone made or brought something to contribute so our meal, in total, consisted of:
Boissons
Champagne + black currant sirop (un kir royale)
Stellas
Red wine + white wine
Aperatifs
Chip Dip
Brie + carmelized onions + baguette
Assorted raw vegetables + home-made Ranch dressing
Entree
Turkey
Stuffing
Home-made gravy
Mashed potatoes
Vegetables
Green bean casserole
Salad
Traditional English pudding
Dessert
Chocolate whiskey mousse
Pavalova
Basically, in Thanksgiving style, everyone was in food comas most of the day, and the walk home was very welcome after over-indulging to the extreme. We said the Robbie Burns toast (yay!) and then sporatically during dinner people would exclaim, "I'm thankful for...!" and we would all "hear, hear!" and feel happy to be together. :)
It was WONDERFUL! And I loved being part of the other assistants' First Thanksgiving ever!
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