I heart my job

After commenting about how bad I am at writing consistently yesterday, it feels funny to post something else today. But, today was a great day in all of my classes, so I wanted to share. I was able to participate in an extra class today in which I helped lead a book discussion about Boy by Roald Dalh. I have these 1ère (junior level) students in another class, in which they hardly talk. But today they talked, and we had so much fun! They were telling childhood stories about being pushed in the pool by their swimming instructor, and falling off horses. We had a good time, AND it was all in English!

I was also forced to walk across the school grounds today during one of the students' recreation times. I normally avoid that because it is just so crowded, but I couldn't today. Much to my delight, I had almost a dozen students say hi to me in English, and most were very excited to see me. A handful asked me how I was doing and even responded when I replied and one actually started up a conversation about the weather. It was a very encouraging afternoon and a great way to end the week.

The real things I wanted to share, however, are the chain stories we wrote in 2 of my classes today. One is a 3ème (freshman level) class and the other is 2nde (sophomore). In both classes, I had half the students for 25 minutes, during which we wrote a chain story, and then I had the other half. A chain story is when you take turns adding to the story. In our case, a person would add one sentence and then the next person would add one sentence, etc. Along the way, I corrected grammar, helped with vocab, and demonstrated how to spell items. This is actually a really good exercise because it forces the students to practice using the past tense. Their stories are random, full of violence, and sometimes just don't make sense. I want to be clear, I had no role in creating these. I just wrote them down. But we had so much fun, I wanted to share them.

Once upon a time... a man entered a chocolate factory. He ate chocolate. He swam in a river of chocolate. He had a big nose. He was fat. He was small and big. He had big eyes. He had a small mouth. He saw a gorilla and shot him with a shot gun. He had a big dog. The dog was angry and he ate the man. The man came back to life. The man played baseball with the gorilla's family and the dog was angry. He lived in a manor made of chocolate. The dog was made of candy. The man bowled with the gorilla's head. The man became a duck. He married the dog and they had a lot of children.

The End

Once upon a time...a little rabbit met another little rabbit. The first rabbit ate the second. He was very happy. After, he met a cat. The cat was crazy because he smoked cannabis. The rabbit ate the cat. The rabbit was yellow. He had a big nose. The rabbit could fly. The rabbit met a wolf. The wolf was called Super Wolf. The wolf ate the rabbit's carrot. The rabbit played a carrot computer game. He won and killed himself because he ate too many carrots and became fat. The dead rabbit exploded. The wolf was sad because he killed the rabbit. The wolf met a girl wolf and the story restarted...

Once upon a time...vampires existed. And werewolves existed too. And sheep that ate werewolves. Humans were scared. The vampires lived in a castle. There were ghosts too. There were also rabbits who ate vampires. A mouse ate the rabbit. They all lived together in the castle. The castle was haunted. This story happened in a school. Humans were alone in the world and had to survive. One day, a girl was walking across the road next to the castle. She felt someone behind her. She turned around and saw a big sheep. The sheep attacked the girl. The girl was killed and transformed into a sheep.

The End

Once upon a time...there was a strange band of teenagers who went to a strange house. It was a haunted house. They wanted to have a party there. But they were in the middle of nowhere. They invited a serial killer. Dracula lived in the house and ate the serial killer to protect the teenagers.* During the party the lights switched off and there was a lot of noise. At midnight, they heard something near the chimney. It was Christmas music. Suddenly, the lights turned on and Dracula was hip-hop dancing. And he did a striptease. Everyone screamed because it was too horrible to watch. They were blinded. Finally, Harry Potter came with his broom. He fell on the ground next to Dracula and everybody was laughing. But they woke up and it was just a dream. In reality, they had to go to school.

The End

*someone said off to the side that it was because he liked to party

Days like today make me love my job.

Christmas time is here...and I am awful at blogging

It has been 3 weeks since I have written anything. That's ridiculous. I have never been good at keeping a diary or journal, and I suppose blogging falls into that same category. So really, I shouldn't be surprised. But, my lack of communication also means that life is just continuing as usual, which is good! It means I have a routine and that the world around me is not big and scary anymore, which means that buying groceries no longer warrants a blog entry. However, I have still done some exciting things in the last few weeks!!

I am super proud to say that I made a Thanksgiving meal for my roommates! I made everything from scratch and it was amazing. I made roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, butternut squash, green bean casserole, stuffing, and deviled eggs. I even made pumpkin pie, which everyone loved. I have no idea how I did it all without messing anything up. The whole evening was great fun.

Our Thanksgiving feast!! And me being all proud of my pumpkin pie. 

I spent a Saturday in Avignon, which is only a 2 hour train ride south of Roussillon. It was ridiculously cold and windy! I saw the Palace of the Popes and the Bridge of Avignon. Out of all of the museums I have every been to, the Palace of the Popes was by far one of the best. Everyone received a fantastic audio guide (offered in 11 different languages!) that helped lead you through the Palace. It was really awesome!! The Pont d'Avignon (Bridge of Avignon) was neat. There is a famous song about dancing on the Pont d'Avignon. It was stuck in my head all morning in anticipation, and then again all afternoon after actually seeing it. If you don't know the song, just google it, and you can have it stuck in your head all day too. :) I also saw my first marché de Noël (Christmas market). It's a market of Christmas related items and neat, artsy gifts, decorated with Christmas lights and Christmas music. For someone like me who loves Christmas, it was beautiful!

le Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes)

Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse (seriously, go look up the song)

However, not all Christmas festivities here are fantastic  On December 8, Lyon holds a Festival of Lights. There are dozens of light displays set up all over the city. Multiple large squares have light projections on the sides of buildings. There are Christmas lights everywhere. The lights were beautiful!! However, the additional 4 million people that visited the city the same day we did made it pretty miserable (all of the visitors more than tripled the city's population).There were so many people, it was actually kind of scary. You couldn't move or walk where you wanted, but only where the crowd was going. The lights were beautiful, but there are always pictures online.

Classes continue to go mostly well. I believe (I hope) that I am becoming better in the classroom. I still have problems adjusting my language level sometimes to some of the lower level classes. I just keep reminding myself to speak slowly and simply. My students still continue to mostly like me, although my novelty as a cool American is wearing off. Unfortunately, that means I don't automatically have their attention all the time, but have to fight for it like a normal teacher. Maybe after the holidays I will explain what I do in a typical class.

My tiny Christmas tree! It's a whole 45 cm tall.

It is less than 2 weeks until Christmas, which is unbelievable. My family arrives soon for the holidays and I can't wait!! I am purposefully refraining from cleaning the apartment, doing laundry  etc. until right before people get here. That way I have something with which to occupy myself while I anxiously wait.

And then after the holidays, I really don't have that much more time here. Not that I'm counting down because I hate it here, but I'm counting until I get to come home. In counting how many more weeks of classes, there isn't a lot! After holidays, I have 7 weeks of school until the next 2 week break at the end of February and then just another 6 weeks of classes and then I'm done. It may even be less if I get to travel to England as I have been invited on 2 separate week long school trips. We are waiting on the administrative clearance from the French Ministry of Education and the US Embassy for me to be a chaperon  but if that all works out, I will be taking 2 weeks again from classes to go to London and York. So really, the second half of my stay might be filled with even bigger adventures than the first.

From Roussillon with love

You shouldn't eat me because...

It's finally Thanksgiving!! I have been talking about Thanksgiving in my classes for almost 2 weeks now. In one of the activities, I had the students imagine that they were turkeys and they had to tell me why I should eat their neighbor and not them for Thanksgiving. Some classes did not seem to have fun with the activity, but others were fantastic! Here are some of the highlights.

"You shouldn't eat me because I'm not really a turkey. I'm a duck in a turkey costume."

"You should eat my neighbor because he does not work out and cannot run fast and is easy to catch."

"You shouldn't eat me because I am too beautiful."

"You shouldn't eat me because you already ate my parents and that's not fair."

"You should eat my neighbor because he is easy to pluck."

"You should eat my neighbor because she is already suicidal and will go quietly."

"You shouldn't eat me because I am sick."

"You should eat my neighbor because he is juicy and delicious."

"You shouldn't eat me because I have a large family to take care of and pets that need me."

Happy Thanksgiving!!

From France with love

Do you speak English?

It is hard to believe that just a week ago I was on my way back from Paris. I went to a great blues concert Saturday night, which was a good way to end vacation. It's amazing to how quickly I fell back into a routine here in Roussillon.  And now that classes have started again, vacation feels like forever ago. But in that time, I have mused some more over my first visit to the city of lights. I really had a great time and saw a lot things, but the thing that really stuck with me was my experiences, both first-hand and as an observer, that dealt with language. And being the organized person that I am, I have come up with 3 specific examples (or maybe that's just a habit left over from grad school).

The first, and by far funniest examples, happened in the hostel where I stayed. It's France, so I never wanted to assume that anyone spoke English, even though many do. I don't want to be that American that just assumes everyone speaks English, so I always started conversations in French and then shifted when necessary. But Paris is also the center of international tourism. The day I went to the Place de la Concorde, I was the only white person surrounded by several, older, Asian tourists. But how do you start a conversation with someone, when you have no idea what languages they speak? I'm not the only one who struggled with that idea. The funniest time I witnessed this was at the hostel. One morning at breakfast, a woman went to sit down across from another woman and they exchanged pleasantries in French, simply saying "bonjour" to each other. About a minute went by and one of the women leaned over and said hesitantly "Do you speak English?" and the other responded,  with a sigh and laugh of relief, "Yes, I'm Australian." At this, they started a nice conversation that continued well after I left the room. I suppose if I was more of an extrovert, I would never have those awkward silences, but I do and the experiences are still funny.

The 2nd example is the opposite of the first. At the tourist sites (Eiffel Tour, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame) rather than finding out what languages people speak, no one cares. Asking someone to take your picture is like a smile, the same in every language. All you do is point and hand your camera to someone with a smile and they do it willingly. I took multiple pictures for people and had them take pictures of me. Sometimes they just happen to speak English, others French, and others I have no idea. But the amount of cooperation and understanding between tourists, no matter what nationality, was really intriguing to watch.

The last example was the church I attended Sunday. I went to Hillsong Paris, which for those that don't know, Hillsong is a megachurch in Australia that has started to expand internationally. They write a lot of popular worship songs. So beyond the fact that Reuben Morgan helped lead worship, the coolest part of the service was the fact that it was entirely bilingual. Everything was in both French and English. They alternated which language was used to lead the worship songs, although both languages were also on the screen and sung around me. There was an interpreter for everything spoken, translating every couple of sentences. Logistically  it was really well done, and I'm sure sometimes a nightmare. But how does a church function when some of its members can't communicate with others? I'm not sure how many people are in the church, but there are 2 services and the theater holds over 800. It obviously works, or else the church wouldn't be growing. I would enjoy talking to some of their staff to see how they make it work outside of the weekly service.

On a side note...I love worshiping in French. I don't know if it's just because I think about the words more, but it's amazing. And while I don't love everything Hillsong does, my experience at Hillsong Paris demonstrates to me that they understand that the Kingdom has no national borders. Hearing scripture, a sermon, and worship in French reiterates to me that Christianity is not an American thing, but a global thing that encompasses different languages, cultures, and styles of worship and connects people across oceans and mountains, from every corner of the earth. And that my friends, is an encouraging and awe inspiring idea.

From Roussillon with love. 

Paris...

Paris...

I have sat here now for almost 20 minutes thinking of what to write. I'm still digesting Paris and what it means to be here, so a more comprehensive explanation of my trip will come later. But I wanted to write a post while I was still in Paris so I could truly sign off with "From Paris with love."

Here are some quick highlights:
~a fantastic cache-cache experience with new friends, where God told me to simply embrace the joie de vivre that I have been experiencing all weekend. (Learn more about cache-cache here http://cachecache-experience.com/)
~seeing the hidden art galleries, and "off the beaten trail" roads in Marais during cache-cache
~seeing the sunset over the city and behind the Eiffel Tower (see my facebook page)
~watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle on my first night here
~walking along the Seine
~mastering the use of the Paris Metro
~worshiping this morning at Hillsong Paris church. The bilingual experience was very cool and Reueben Morgan happened to be visiting this week and helped lead worship. I have never attended a church with such expectation in it's service. I could, and might, write a whole blog about this service, because it touched me spiritually, but also the logistical stuff was just cool too.
~visiting the Sacre-Coeur at night. There were beautiful views overlooking the city outside and then I listened to the end of mass and prayed inside.

Overall, I'm amazing at the sheer size and grandeur of everything. I haven't really gotten the chance to visit the inside of places (some will happen tomorrow) and I'm not doing museums this trip since I get an educational pass from my school's secretary and get in for free. But everything is so big!!! I've seen pictures of Notre-Dame and the Louvre for years and I knew they were big, but I am still just continually overwhelmed by the grandeur and size of these old buildings. And the size of the city in general. What looks like a 5 minute walk on the map is probably closer to 10 or 15.

I have another day and half here and it will be loaded with stuff, including seeing the inside of Notre-Dame and finally doing close-ups of the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tour. I must "profiter de" Paris.

From Paris with love :)

My Introspective Realization

As I'm sitting here, eating my dinner of fried rice, I realized something. Okay, I didn't just realize it, but I wanted a way to share that I'm eating a lot of Chinese food, mainly fried rice and homemade of course. I love the irony in my life. :)

But I really did realize something this week. I miss touching people. I know that sounds really bad, so let me say it in a more sophisticated way. I really miss physical interaction with other people, or really anything living for matter (aka my dogs). I'm used to kissing my husband good morning or cuddling at night before we go to sleep, but it's even more than that. I'm used to hugging my family and friends almost whenever I see them. There was an abundance of hugging before I left. I'm used to cuddling with my dogs or petting them while I watch tv. I had all kinds of physical interaction on a daily basis.

And now I don't. The French don't hug, and I don't really know anyone here well enough to hug them anyway. While my good girlfriends would cuddle with me, probably without me even having to ask, I'm not going to ask my roommates to do that. First of all, that would just be kind of weird, even for me. But second, that kind of interaction just would not take place here. So for the last 5 weeks, the most physical interaction that I have had was an old man trying to kiss me Tuesday (see the previous post). I've exchanged the bises with a handful of people and shaken a lot of hands, but that's it.

I'm sure there are several factors as to why I am realizing this now. The first is probably that I am on vacation and don't really have anything to do but be introspective. The second is that one of my roommate's boyfriend is here. It's not like there is too much PDA; they are very respectful of me being here. But they do hold hands or cuddle while we all three watch a movie, and it has made me realize how much I miss having a physical interaction with something living. I don't know how many dogs I saw Tuesday in Valence and I wanted to cuddle with and pet every single one. Maybe soon I can corner one of the stray cats that lives around the school and pet it too my heart's content and then the problem will be solved, but that's probably not the best idea.

In other random news, last Friday I had another dinner with some teachers. A few of us went a little early to Vienne to walk around and have some drinks before dinner. I had a great, sweet German white wine. And then my dinner included snails, which I apparently love! So that was fun. This weekend should also be the remedy for whatever ails me since I'm going to Paris for a few a days! I leave tomorrow morning and will be back Tuesday. A former professor from Anderson emailed me a neat spiritual experience that is taking place this weekend so I decided to go. So even though I am going by myself, I will be with people Saturday and Sunday and then will have 2 days to walk around and see things before I come back. I'm a little nervous but really excited!

From Roussillon (and soon Paris, eek!!) with love

My first "draguer" experience

Today, I had my first "draguer" experience. In France, it is completely common and normally for men to approach women who are by themselves and talk to them. The verb in French, I learned today, is draguer, which loosely translated means to chat up. It does not necessarily involve any intention of actually dating the person, like we would associate in America. It's just French. I had a professor at Ball State that told stories about a female student he knew that studied abroad in Paris. Her technique for avoiding these conversations was to stand up and start babbling like a crazy person whenever a man approached her. Another student he knew timed how long she could sit alone in a cafe before someone approached her. It was something like 5 minutes. I knew that I would have deal with this unique aspect of the French culture, and today was the day.

I just started a 2 week vacation and all of my roommates have plans with their respective significant others and families, so I am on my own for most of the time. I have some larger plans for the weekend, but today I just decided to visit Valence-Ville, a larger town south of us. It has some neat old churches and isn't far away. After walking for a few hours this morning, I came to a nice plaza area with some benches and decided just to sit and enjoy the sun, since it was slightly chilly. An elderly man, probably around 60 or 70, rode his bike past me and said something, but I didn't catch it because he was traveling quickly the other direction. He turned around and came back to tell me that I am very beautiful. I explained that I don't speak French very well, so he decided just to ask simple questions: where I'm from, why I'm in France, if I have a boyfriend (he was surprised that I was married), and what all I was seeing in Valence. Through out all of this he told me about 6 times that I was very beautiful. We only chatted for about 2 minutes and then he went to leave. He asked if it was okay to do the bises (French greeting of kissing the cheeks), and I said yes. I've exchanged the bises with multiple people, including men, without any problem. And then he tried to do a 3rd close to the lips and I said no, that wasn't okay with me. He then genuinely apologized for making me uncomfortable and said au revoir, reminding me again that I was very beautiful.

Overall, it was an odd experience. I didn't feel threatened in any way or that he was trying to take advantage of me. I think he really felt sorry for making me uncomfortable. It's kind of flattering, and I knew it would probably happen at some point, but it still really weirds out the American part of me. It didn't have anything to with what I was wearing, because it was cold out and my winter jacket was zipped all the way up (not that I was wearing anything weird). He made a comment that people must try to "draguer" me a lot. I didn't know what the word meant so he explained and I said that this was the first time and he was surprised. That comment, that this must happen all the time just points to the idea that it's a part of French culture. Thus far, I realized I have always been with groups or going somewhere. This was the first time that I had ever lingered somewhere by myself. I didn't linger by myself for the rest of afternoon and will try not to again. While I wasn't in any danger, it was awkward.

Overall, a learning experience about the French culture. I'm still kind of scratching my head my head over the whole incident and how to deal with it better the next time.

Mort d'un Commis Voyageur

Wednesday, October 24

Yesterday I spent all afternoon and evening in Lyon with a group of students on a field trip. We went to see a production of Death of a Salesman. The day was a lot of fun. We had a 2 hour Q&A session with the director at 2. She explained how she translated the play with a combination of literal translation and adopting the translation for the French culture. She talked about the simplicity of the set and props, which was really interesting. And for anyone that knows the play, there are multiple flashbacks, which were indicated simply by changing the color of the stage lights. It was nice to have this preview before seeing the actual play later that evening.

After the Q&A session, we had 3 hours to kill before we had to meet again for the actual performance. So the students were turned loose in Lyon. Another teacher took the time to show me around 2 quarters of Lyon: Presqu'isle and Vieux Lyon. Presqu'isle (Almost an Island) is called that because it's almost an island. Lyon is where two rivers, the Rhône and the Saône come together to become the Rhône and this neighborhood is on the thin strip of land between where the rivers converge. It has many restaurants and shopping areas. Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) is the old section of the city, as in Roman ruins. We just walked a little in this area, so I want to go back and do some more exploring. 

The play was in the Célestins Theater, which is beautiful. I don't know any information about it, but I wish I could have gotten pictures of the inside. There wasn't really time before or after the play and I was sitting in the highest balcony, which meant that I could not get pictures of the murals on the ceilings and the detail work that lined the balconies. It was amazing! The play itself was intense. I have never seen it performed in English, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. But I really enjoyed it. It proved to be a late night, but was definitely worth it. This is the theater all lit up before we went inside.

The rest of this week should fly by! And then we have a 2 week vacation. Hopefully I will have all kinds of fun stories to share.

From Lyon with love

Exploring Roussillon

Sunday, October 21

The past week has flown by and most of it as just been classes and life, so I'm not sure what all to share with everyone. The welcome with the mayor last Saturday was interesting. The castle was built in 16th century for an Italian cardinal, so the architecture is Italian in style, not French. The cardinal was an advisor to François 1st. And then in 1564 Charles IX and his mother, Catherine de Médicis stayed at the castles to escape some epidemic in Lyon, I believe. And while he was here, he signed the Edict of Roussillon, making January 1 the b beginning of the new year for all of France. Apparently up to that point, everyone had the same calender, but celebrated the new year on a different date. So within 50 kilometers of Roussillon, you could have 3 different years happening. It would be fun to go back and do the full tour of the castle, since we only got to see a small portion.

We had two other fun engagements last week. One was lunch with a woman named Elliet. She is married to a French man who works in the municipal government, but she is from Nicaragua. Every year she reaches out to the assistants, especially the Spanish one, and feeds them and is just a friend. And because her husband is in the government, I guess they have some pull if we need something. They have helped assistants in the past get new things for the apartment when something broke. She is very kind and lunch was delicious. We had some kind of curry chicken, rice, and zucchini in some kind of cream sauce.

The other fun thing was a dinner last Friday that the high school teachers had for us. They took us to a nice restaurant and we ate for 4 hours. The food was okay, but was very similar to anything we would in the US. The only exception was the foie gras and the length of time. But even though we ate for that long, we didn't eat that much. Dinner was 4 courses. The first was the wine aperitif, with wine (obviously) and some tapinade. The second was a small salad (like 4 pieces of lettuce) and a thing of foie gras for the bread. Although, it was not just foie gras, it was foie gras fondant. Apparently it was mixed with some kind of pate to make it smoother. It was still very good. Then dinner was the leg of small fowl with mashed potatoes and mushrooms. And dessert was chocolate and vanilla mousse (a small serving of each) with a small cookie. It was fun to listen to all of the teachers talk during dinner. I couldn't keep up with everything they were talking about, so it was very exhausting, but good practice.

I am slowly learning some things in Spanish and German. I can now say “Yo he camido tortilla de patatas” and “Ich habe tortilla de patatas gegessen” with both mean I ate tortilla de patatas. Tortilla de patatas is something the Spanish assistant found in the grocery store and she eats a lot of. It's a potato and onion kind of casserole/quiche thing. It's pretty good.

Other than that, everything has just been life and classes, which are still going relatively well. I am doing some activities about Halloween this week, which should hopefully be fun. I am also going on a field trip with some students on Tuesday to Lyon to see “The Death of a Salesman.” There is a Q & A with the director before and then the play the evening. All in French, but hopefully I can follow most of it. There is just this next week left of classes and then we have a 2 week break. I still don't really know what I'm doing for it. Most likely things relatively close and cheap, but thanks to the train, that can really mean anything.

From Roussillon with love

Finding a routine

Thursday, October 11

I started my classes this week, which has been interesting. My schedule is very confusing. I am only in the classroom 12 hours a week, but I am in 18 different classes. All of my classes I have for 1 hour and I am in some every week and others every other week. So I will still be introducing myself in classes until next Friday, which seems odd because I will meet these students for an hour and then not see them for a month. The schools here are on a year round schedule, so they get 2 week breaks fairly frequently, and one happens at the end of October, beginning of November. So I will meet them next week, not be in their class the next week, and then be on vacation for 2 weeks.

While I am teaching in two middle schools, the youngest students that I have are 14. Middle school is just a rough translation. Most of my jobs simply focuses on talking with the students, helping them with pronunciation, and creating any kind of dialogue. So for the lower level classes, that means a lot of games and activities that force them to talk and in the older classes, we will have debates, analyze photos and news articles write skits.

Thus far, everything has gone fairly well. Some students are more motivated than others, just like in any school, but I haven't had any behavior issues and the students have been genuinely excited to meet me. The city I am in has a chemical factory. One of the teachers was telling me that the presence of the factory makes it difficult get funding for renovations, so the school is older. But all of the necessities for the classroom function alright.

The school is really a reflection of Roussillon. The city is kind of dirty because of the factories. While it's small, everyone drives so the roads are very busy and the town limits are right next to neighboring towns. So while Roussillon only has 7 or 8 thousand residents, there are 4 other towns with 4 thousand residents right next to it, so it feels bigger than that in some respects. We are slowly discovering things to do here. We have been told that there is a move theater, even though we haven't found yet. They are sports clubs to join, a community center with classes and cultural events, and community bus that we can take to the closest mall. So while Roussillon is not Lyon or Paris, the people are nice and I enjoy being here.

The only other adventure we took was to Vienne last Saturday. A beautiful town of about 30,000 people, Vienne has a very rich history, dating back to the Romans. There is a Roman theater and a temple that was built in 10 BC. There are also several churches and buildings from the Middle Ages, including a beautiful cathedral. We did the self-guided walking tour (2 miles) around the city. We didn't pay to actually go in and see anything, but I took tons of pictures. Vienne is only 2 stops north on the train (only 5 euros round trip) so it was the perfect day trip. The picture is the inside of a Renaissance cathedral.

Besides finishing classes this week, me and my roommates are invited to an open house at city hall, which is an 18th century castle, for all of the new arrivals in the city. I think we get to meet the mayor and tour the castle, so that should be fun. Although we haven't received our official invitation yet, we are supposed to call to get the details. Hope fully it will be fun!

From Roussillon (and Vienne) with love

Early Adventures

Thursday, 4 October

So, I have the whole weekend to share and every day was full of something, so this will be rather long. There should less excitement once I start classes next week.

So the end of my last post was excitement about going to Lyon. It wasn't fun. Since we didn't have internet, we couldn't plan and we got there too late in the afternoon to really explore the historical sections that are further from the train station. So we just decided to walk around the station. Aparrently, everything in Lyon, including the majority of the cafes, are closed on Saturday. So the only thing to do was go to the mall, where the rest of Lyon was spending the afternoon. So there wasn't much to do besides walk aimlessly, and it was kind of cold. The only bright spot was that we finally found a place to have a cup of coffee, so I have my first café et crème français. It was quite tasty!

Sunday, we walked around Le Péage de Roussillon. It really isn't a super nice town. There are some bakeries and pastry shops that I want to try. We slowly wandered into the historical section of Roussillon, which is up and over a hill from the school. There is a really old church there, with some beautiful views of the Massif Central. I'm not sure about the details of the church. I haven't the time or access to internet to really research it.

Our orientation for the program was Monday and Tuesday. We left at 7:30 Monday morning to get to Grenoble, the central city of the region, by noon (lots of waiting at places). Thankfully, a round trip train ticket is only 25 euros. The first day was mostly boring, administrative things. But Grenoble is nestled in a valley of the Alps and is beautiful!!! Monday evening we went to Autrans, a small skiing village up in the Alps. The second day was much more helpful. There were activities about lesson planning and guidelines for running the classroom. We left Autrans at 4:30 and walked around Grenoble for 45 minutes before our train. I took some great pictures and really want to go back and fully explore the city. It isn't a huge city, so not too intimating, but very beautiful and lots of history!

And then it was all down hill from there. Our train from Grenoble to Lyon was late, so we missed our connection to Le Péage de Roussillon, which isn't not a huge deal, because one runs every hour. So we waited the 45 minutes for the next train and with 10 minutes to go, they decide to have a fire drill. I understood the emergency announcement, so that was good. So we were fearing missing our train, which would have been terrible because it was the last one for the night, and instead we ended being 45 minutes delayed because of the drill and the havoc it created on the train schedule. And after all that, we still had the 15 minutes walk to the school, which doesn't sound like a lot, but tonight it was. So instead of arriving at the apartment shortly after 9, we got there at 11, after leaving Autrans at 4:30. It was a long day.

Wednesday was not much better, since it consisted only of trying to figure out the bureaucratic nightmare that is France. We are still trying to get internet in the apartment, so I can skype and use the internet after school hours. For right now, I just have access to school computers. But, we opened bank accounts Thursday, and will hopefully get signed up for internet tomorrow. Although it might still take a few weeks to get it installed.

Besides that mess, things are well. My French is slowly getting better. I can now understand how awful I sound and how many mistakes I make, so I think that means I am getting better. I am enjoying the French food. I have now had café coffee and multiple croissants and baguettes. The food selection for shopping is a little different (there is an entire 4 aisles dedicated to milk products, like butter, cheese and cream, and oddly, the carts are different. On American carts, the front wheels do the turning and on the French, the backs wheels turn), and our kitchen is very tiny. We do have a stove and an oven. But I don't know how to use the oven yet, and I don't think you can fit a 9x13 in it. And we have very limited pots and pans, so meals have to be simple and easy.

I start my classes tomorrow (Friday), mostly just to introduce myself to students. My real schedule starts Monday. I think some of roommates want to go to Grenoble this weekend, but I would like to just rest.

With love from Roussillon

Adjusting

Friday, Sept. 28

So, I have now been here for a full day and I seem to be adjusting ok. We have had a problem with the internet in our apartment. We have a wireless network set-up, but no one seems to know the password for it. This afternoon, we tried to find the man at the school who is supposed to help us, but he had already left for the weekend. But the last 24 hours have been eventful, nonetheless.

I boarded my 11:58 train with no real issues. There was hardly any room for my suitcases, but a nice French lady helped me move things around to make space. I got the station with barely anytime to catch my next train, because I had to buy my ticket at a counter since the machines do not take cash. Again, I bought the ticket all in French. I am sure the lady at the counter laughed at me after I left. I only had 5 minutes to catch the train, which isn't necessarily a big deal, but dragging two heavy suitcases makes it much more difficult. Anyway, I got to the platform completely out of breath, and then the train was delayed for 20 minutes. Oh, well. I arrived at my stop and waited only 15 minutes for Anne to pick me up. She was very nice and drove me around Roussillon a bit before taking me to school and my apartment.

Shortly after I arrived, the German assistant got here as well. Her father was with her, and they are both very nice. She speaks English also, so that is helpful for making sure we both understand French. And then later, the Spanish assistant arrived. She only speaks Spanish and French. So, that means French almost all the time in my apartment, which I thought would be a big deal, but so far it is okay. I think that is because we all speak relatively slowly, but I do not have the major headache I was planning on, so I believe that's good. Our contact people treated us to Moroccan last night, which was nice since we did not have time to go grocery shopping. I ended up going to bed at 8:30.

I slept until after 10 this morning, but that seems to be all that I needed to switch time zones. I'm a little tired now, but it's after 11 here. Since my German roommate (L~) and her father rented a car until he leaves tomorrow, he kindly drove us all around today. We went to the big supermarket in the next town over so we could simply buy everything that we needed and then he took us for a drive in the across the Rhône River, which is just west of the village. We went into the beginnings of the Massif Central, the mountain plateaus in south central France. It is actually quite close and it was neat because from the mountains we drove up in the Massif Central, we could see the Alps to the east. I got some neat photos that I will post when I have access to internet. This evening the Italian assistant arrived, and she speaks a little English, but we have really only spoken in French today. L~ and I speak in English a little bit, but not often. We all want to improve our French, so that means we have to use it.

We got a TV in the apartment today. Only French channels, but the interesting thing is that so many shows are American, just dubbed. We watched NCIS, one of the criminal shows that takes plane in Miami (the name was a weird translation), and the old Adventures of Superman and Lois Lane. All in French, but some had subtitles which was helpful. The car has to be returned tomorrow, so we are all driving to Lyon and dropping of the care and L~'s father at the airport and then we are exploring Lyon for few hours and then coming back before the last train. It should be fun!

From Roussillon with love

I'm here!

Note: I know this is delayed, but the internet in our apartment does not work and this is the first opportunity that I have had to post anything. Rest assured, I did write this last Thursday.

I have arrived! I am sitting in the SNCF train station waiting for my 11:58 train. It is only 8:15. I have a while to entertain myself. I really can't believe that I am here so early. The plane arrived almost 45 minutes early and then legally entering the country only took about 30 seconds. And then my bags were the first out at baggage claim and the way to the train station was very clearly marked, so now I am two hours earlier than I had anticipated. Which gives me plenty of time to change clothes, and use the computer in theory, but my adapters were not so smartly put in my checked bags at the bottom. Not so smart.

My flight over was mostly amazing. I woke up about 2 hours before we landed feeling kind of sick, but I think it was a mixture of rich food (a 4 course dinner), being cold, turbulence and nerves. Other than that the flight was amazing. I got a first-class window seat. It was cloudy most of the flight so I could not see anything on the ground, but watching the sunset over the tops of the clouds was really neat. It was nice to almost completely lay down in my seat. The 4 course dinner was good, as was breakfast this morning. The guy next to me was really nice. He was from Lexington, KY and while I don't know his name or what he does at all, he was very helpful in explaining all the first-class gadgets to me (like the flight tracker that is built into each seat's touchscreen so you can see where the plane is at) and how going through customs and things went.

On the language thing, I have already spoken French to some people: the lady who changed my money and the guy who kept me from falling down the escalator (that kids, is why you aren't supposed to take large suitcases on escalators). I can understand the programmed announcements here at the station, which is encouraging. Of course, they repeat them in English, but I understand the French version first. I can also eavesdrop a little, which is funny. But they have to be speaking slowly.

From my TGV train at 11:58, I arrive in Lyon at 2. I should catch the 2:20 out of Lyon towards Marseille, which should take my straight to Le Péage de Roussillon, where Anne, a teacher from my school will there at 3:30 pick me up. She will show me my school and apartment. I meet two of my roommates today and the third arrives tomorrow.

I know this is kind of a rambling writing, but I have had only 3 or 4 hours of iffy, interrupted sleep. This weekend, or early next week, I will writing something more coherent and meaningful. But for now I am going to wait some more. Probably drink some coffee too.

From Paris SNCF CDG2 with love