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