The other side of the chalkboard

1. Last weekend can be summarized as follows:
tennis racket buying, sleeping-in, tennis playing (on a members-only club, of which we are not members and for which we did not pay), airplane take-off observation at a minuscule airport near M, marveling at the car club where people spend probably thousands of dollars on fat tires just to burn them up on a twisting test track, canoeing in icy waters with the new roommate, dinners with a spirited German family, crazy debates about taxes in France vs. Germany vs. America (I'm definitely siding with the US on this one, just as everyone individually stood strong for his/her roots), and "Top Gun."

2. Monday involved lots of lesson planning and equal amounts of stress. I got a call from a teacher friend from last year, who invited me out for a drink with the other teachers. I hesitantly decided to go and had the craziest conversations about destiny, and teaching, and our region of France.

3. Tuesday involved a meeting for the new teachers, lots more lesson planning and stress, and a lightning-fast tour of my new school. I came home after 2.5 hours of constant information, and felt like I had run a marathon. But, of course, I couldn't sleep regardless of the exhaustion. Because...

4. Wednesday was the whole-day whole-staff meeting. It was an entire workday of rapid-fire French, filled with acronyms that made no sense to me, forty-some new names (and sets of two pecks on the cheek to go along with each) and tons of information that seems, now, as though it's stuff that I'll have to learn as I go along. I took pages and pages of notes, sat right up in the front of the room, and did the usual new person routine (lots of standing around, trying to look occupied and not as awkward as it felt) and also tried just being myself, which was hard because a) I quickly realized that I am the ONLY 'debutant' this year, even though others are new to the particular school and b) it's hard to speak French when I am nervous. So, I did the best I could and found myself admitting my gut-wrenching fear, which I'm glad I did because...

5. Today was the first day of school, and lots of the teachers came up to me asking if everything had gone okay. It meant so much to me that they showed so much support and encouragement, especially since I don't know anyone (except one lady that went to the gym with me last year). The director terrified me yesterday by clamping her hand on my shoulder, sitting down next to me and asking if everything was okay. I was so unprepared for this unsolicited act of kindness, I couldn't even bring myself to formulate a clear sentence. Today, she performed an encore, and I reacted much better this time.

Despite the one hour of miserable sleep I got, having woken up gratefully to the sound of the alarm that jolted me from a terrifying nightmare about illegal immigrants stealing my passport at my hometown library then making me pay to get it back and consequently being held hostage because the police caught them and were about to export them, despite the stomach-churning fear and the headache I've had all week, my pounding heart and trembling hand, I stumbled through my first class okay, and then went onto a much better follow-up to finish up the day with a student who actually said he is looking forward to English class. Having now officially taught two classes, I think I can now call myself an actual teacher.

6. Prayers to the sleep and sinus gods have gone out, as I desperately want a night of good sleep and a nose that will stop running. Perhaps I ask too much, because I would also like tomorrow to go well, as I meet two more new classes... and a good Monday would also be really nice, because I have 6 classes and a very full day.

Otherwise, my roommate is making crepes tonight, I got an amazing package in the mail today along with several very encouraging e-mails before school, and I can now say that I have finished my very FIRST first day of school in my professional teaching career. :)

Tchin-tchin!