Christmas 2012

Last night, Christmas Eve, after a good Christmas movie, Shell and I headed to Midnight mass. The Church is right next door so it was only about a 10 minute walk in the rain. The service took place in a relatively small old church. There was a balcony behind us on which the choir sang and rows of rows of chairs for the people attending the service. We sat and stood in unison with the rest of the congregation listening to a lot of French and some Latin. The most fun part for me was getting to see the lyrics to the songs written in both Latin and French. I think I learned a little Latin. I also enjoyed listening to the sermon in French.

We stayed there for about an hour and then when everyone got up to eat the body of Christ we snuck out. When we got home we started another Christmas movie but weren't able to finish it before falling asleep.

We woke up this morning a bit before 10:00am and had a present fest. It was pretty fun with all the little things in our stockings and a couple of bigger presents. Shell made me a book box. She took an old French text and cut out the inside of the pages so that it is a secret box instead of a book. I love it!

Baby Jesus

The other day Rachelle and I were heading to lunch when we noticed a Nativity scene set up in a window. The room behind the scene was completely empty and a bit dilapidated. The Nativity scene had several figures obviously arranged around the center, however baby Jesus was nowhere to be seen. Taking in the abandoned room in which the scene was displayed we came to the conclusion that it probably just wasn't finished yet. Shell jokingly pointed out that Jesus wasn't born yet anyway.

Last night we went to dinner at a friend's. We noticed that they had a Nativity scene set up as well and lo and behold, baby Jesus was not displayed there either. In fact, he was hiding behind a tree. So we asked a native French person and she informed us that Jesus is not displayed until Christmas because he hasn't been born yet. Another boy added jokingly that they also have a Mary Giving Birth figure that they put in the scene right before they bring out Jesus. He then informed us that he had had to chisel the cradle off of the scene as it had originally been glued down.

Dinner was good fun. Our eggnog didn't go over as well as it might have, everyone had a small glass but no one was really into it like we were. On the bright side we got to take the leftover eggnog home. Afterward we played a great game of Dixit and made it out of there just in time to catch the last bus home.

Shell and I have been plowing through Christmas movies as well which is something I have never done before but it does add to the Christmas spirit. Happy Christmas Eve everyone.

Holiday Spirit

Well, Shell and I are both quite relieved that we survived the end of the world. It was all rather calm in any case. No fire or brimstone, a little chaos but no more than is to be expected as a human. I can't imagine why anyone would want to stock up on supplies to 'survive' the end of the world. For one thing, if the world ended, some canned soup and bottled water doesn't really seem like it would do much good and for another thing, why would you even want to survive it and have to live in a world of END.

Having survived, of course we wanted to do something extra special to celebrate. So we decided to make some holiday eggnog. Eggnog is a delicacy unknown to the French populace and thus you cannot buy the stuff in stores. Fortunately you can find some easy and quick recipes online and all the raw ingredients *cough-raw-eggs-cough* in the grocery store next door.

So we bought the heavy cream and nutmeg necessary and tried our hand at holiday beverage making. SOMEONE *cough-me-cough* accidently was stupid (not on purpose, I promise) and doubled the amount of sugar. So of course we had to double the rest of the recipe and we ended up with enough to bring to the Christmas dinner we are going to tomorrow. It tastes delicious and not entirely unlike 'real' eggnog.

(Oh, and of course we added a homemade label for the bottle we are bringing to the party tomorrow).

Ocean Dew

Yesterday I managed to do the laundry without any mentionable difficulties so I have clean clothes now which is good. I also have new boots now but that is unrelated to the laundry.

After Rachelle got home from work yesterday we went on a small shopping expedition where she and I both bought eye liner (because we needed it) and we looked at boots. I gave myself permission to buy one pair of black boots while I'm here because that is something I don't have and often regret not having. Rachelle found the perfect weather proof shoes for her and I found a likely pair of boots for me, however I decided to sleep on it before making a purchase. After shoe shopping, of course we were hungry so we hit the Carrefour that we right next door and stocked up on groceries. For dinner we had a delicious, cheap and easy vegetable soup and a delicious, cheap and easy salad. After dinner we played cards and watched an episode of French Amazing Race. There was a very Christmas atmosphere to the evening.

This morning I showered and tried on my new eye liner. Shell had a mid-afternoon break so we hung out in her apartment and studied the presidents for a little while before she had to head back to work. I took the Metro with her to her stop and then we parted ways and I made a couple of quick stops to buy some stocking stuffers I had spotted out earlier. On my way home I stopped and bought the boots I'd been eyeing and some rosemary for the potatoes I want to cook tonight. There was no spice called 'rosemary' on the shelf and I wasn't sure what the French word was. The closest I could find was 'romarin' and I wasn't sure if it was the same spice. On the back it said that the original name in French was 'rosée de mer' or in English 'ocean dew' but I figured 'rosée de mar' sounded enough like rosemary that it probably was the right spice. When I got home, I opened it up and smelled it and I was right so I am excited for my potatoes tonight.

Dimanche

Rachelle and I were talking about how every day in French ends with 'di' except Sunday, whereas there are no exceptions in English, all days end in 'day'. However, Rachelle pointed out shortly thereafter that in fact 'Dimanche' or Sunday, starts with the 'di'. This is just one example of the super entertaining things about which we spend our days conversing. She is working on her masters in linguistics so, like me, she finds words very interesting in both French and English.

Today, Dimanche, we slept in and woke up just in time to have a relaxed breakfast and make our matinée of Mama Mia. It was so much fun. The songs where all translated into French as well as the script and somewhat difficult to understand over the orchestra but the atmosphere of musical theatre was lovely and already being familiar with the story, I had no trouble following along. We had cheap seats in the 'nose bleed' section which turned out to be good for two reasons. First, we could look down on the rest of the audience, which was pretty fun and second, we were literally in the last row so I was able to stand up and lean against the wall in order to have a clear view of the stage (being short I often find that the head of the person in the seat in front of me annoyingly blocks my view). We had a great time and didn't even realize that the play lasted 3 hours.

Afterwards, we had dinner at a small pizza joint and then headed to Rachelle's favorite pool hall. We played several rounds of pool and made it home and into bed before midnight. All in all it was a lovely day that could only have been improved upon had we woken up a bit earlier and had a good morning part to the day. Tomorrow, Rachelle works in the morning and I intend to venture out on my own to find a laundromat as I have run out of clean undergarments.

Rachelle and I are planning a trip around the town in the next couple of days in order to get some good photos of the town, the architecture, and us. So expect some visuals in the near future.

Present Shopping

Today I wondered a bit more confidently considering how easily I didn't get lost. I tried to walk mainly on streets I didn't travel the last time and after scooting out Rachelle's Christmas present I got lost. Rennes seems to go on forever in a never ending expanse of streets and walkways lined with shop after shop of goods ranging from cheap junk to expensive chic. When I finally decided to go home, I had check a bus stop map to find out which direction to walk. I did end up making my way home pretty quickly after that, with a short stop to buy the Christmas present.

Upon arriving at home, I took advantage of the hour I had before Shell got back to creatively wrap the present. It is pretty big and there isn't any wrapping paper in Shell's apartment so I ended up just wrapping it in a trash bag. Merry Christmas.

Nothing too exciting happened today but I had a good day in any case. Tomorrow should be fun with Shell here all day and Mama Mia.

Mama Mia

Rachelle has everything right next door to her house. You want a home cooked hot meal? There's a restaurant that has a different option everyday. You need a late night, weekend convenience store that's even open on Sundays? There's one right next door. Big shopping center? Amusement park? Movie theatre? Train station? All conveniently located... next door. And finally, the most important for me, you want to see a musical? There's a theatre right next door. Thus, Shell and I have tickets to see Mama Mia on Sunday in French and I am super excited. I vacillated back and forth as to whether or not it was worth it to me to spend that money on the tickets but now that I've done it, I am really happy I did. I love live theatre too much to miss out on an opportunity to experience it. Especially when it's in French. Especially when it's right next door.

We didn't do much else of interest today. I slept in while Shell went to work and then when she got back we ran some errands which included going to four different libraries to return and check out books. She is a master's student now so lots of books are important to her. When we got back I showed her how to make mayonnaise because I noticed she had some store bought mayonnaise and I am under the impression that now that I know how easy it is to make at home and how yummy, no one should buy store bought anymore.

"Excuse me miss, will you adopt me?"

I had a wonderful romp around Rennes today. I was out walking about for almost 3 hours. It was pretty chilly, I could see my breath, however I was almost warm enough without a jacket on as I was walking briskly. Near the end of my walk I started to be a little chilly. I saw all kinds of neat little shops. I love it here. One of my requirements for liking a town is how easy it is to find your way around. I was able to walk all over and see streets and streets of shops and still find a direct route home. There are all kinds of interesting things in walking distance of the apartment, add to that the fact that the people here are  genuinely nice and I had a great day.

I found oodles of things I wanted to buy, if I didn't have as much self control I could be totally broke by now. I really should have made a list of all the things I wanted to purchase so I could refer to it later. I got a stocking stuffer for Shell (since she hung stockings) and found a good place to buy sushi makings.  I also checked out the movies playing in the nearby cinema and talked to a man about how we need to change the financial system to make the world a better place (he had some negative things to say about Obama).

As I was walking home, a group of boys called after me and then professed their love for me, one saying he loved my beautiful smile, the other asking if I would adopt him, and then both agreeing they loved me. A little while later a cute lone boy standing in a stairwell smoking a cigarette said, "Excuse me miss, will you adopt me? I can cook and clean and do laundry." I told him I could not adopt him but wished him luck. He told me how adorable I am and we parted ways. I guess 'will you adopt me' is a pick-up line in these parts.

Rennes

I got up at 8 to pop the chocolate cakes in the oven for breakfast. They were yummy if not my normal breakfast fare. I also enjoyed having dinner with Agathe as we just didn't have that much time together. After that I returned to bed until around 11:30 at which point all I had left on my schedule was to pack and head to the train station. Instead of waiting for the train I had planned at 4:00, I hopped an earlier one at 2:00. I sent a quick e-mail to Shell letting her know I'd be there earlier so she would know how to find me and pick me up from the train station. The train now comes equipped with outlets with which to charge your whatever. Last time I was here they had the outlets but they also had signs that said 'coming soon' so I was excited to see them working this time.

When I arrived I had enough time to grab a slice of pizza for lunch before Rachelle found me quick walked me home before she had to run to work.

Later in the evening we had a Tunisian pasta that Ghaylen made for us, it was spicy and had potatoes and chicken in it. And then Shell and I headed to a friend's birthday party and I got to meet several other students who are all in the linguistics program with Shell. I had a good time and got to see a little bit of Rennes (according to Rachelle, I got to see most of Rennes but tomorrow I do day time alone exploring).

Cake for Breakfast

Dinner was a yummy and simple boiled potato and melted cheese. Except the cheese is called Mont d'or and comes in a wood box that you put in the oven so in the end you have a box of melted cheese that you scoop over the potatoes. It was quite delicious. We also had, for an hors d'oeuvre, thin strips of raw beef covered in a yummy pesto like sauce and a discussion of why we don't eat raw meat in America.

We made a late night of it and Agathe has to get up early tomorrow. We didn't end up having dessert which was to be mini chocolate cakes with melted chocolate at the center. We decided to have them for breakfast so I will be waking up at 8AM to put them in the oven, having breakfast with Agathe and saying goodbye, and then returning to bed for as long as I want before heading to the train station. Life is hard.

Metro Madness

The Metro was super crowded today around the time everyone was getting off of work, surprise surprise. I went out to meet Kirill, an old friend for a drink. He was one of my older students last year and one of the only ones I actually became friends with. I left a little early so I could swing by the train station and buy my ticket for tomorrow, however the machines only take European cards (or at least only cards which have a special computer chip in them) so I was unable to buy it electronically (this was the same reason I was not able to buy it online). Instead of waiting in line and being late for my rendezvous with Kirill, I decided to buy my ticket tomorrow.

Kirill is going to school here and only had a small window of time in which to get drinks 6:15-7:15. So you can imagine how I felt when I exited the correct Metro station 10 minutes late and promptly got lost. After backtracking and finally finding myself, I found him at about 6:45 leaving us just half an hour to catch up. It was nice to see him and hear a little bit about all the people I haven't seen since I left France. As soon as we parted I headed back to the apartment to meet Agathe were we plan to make cookies and eat cheese (and then cookies).

Traveling by Metro takes so long. It doesn't feel like very long because the time you actually spend in the train going from stop to stop is not very long but all the walking to Metro stations and then around Metro stations and then waiting for the train, eats away at the time without me really noticing it.

My train ticket for tomorrow is going to be almost twice as much as it would've been had I bought it a month ago when I was planning my trip. I couldn't have bought it then however as I didn't know how long I'd be staying in Paris. I could do a ride share for about a third of the cost of the train ticket but it would take an extra two hours to drive there and I would have to spend that time cramped in a French car, so I've decided to count the ticket money as 'travel money' for the trip and splurge a little on a TGV (Super quick train), this being my only public transit option. If they had a cheaper but slower train, I would definitely go with that, I enjoy train rides and a couple extra hours on a train would be much more enjoyable than a couple extra hours in a car.

I am excited to head to Rennes tomorrow and see Rachelle. Rennes is the red A marked on the map. That distance from there to Paris is about 2 hours by train and 4 in a car.

Chèvre for Lunch

I woke up around noon to the sound of someone pounding relentlessly on the door feeling dizzy and disoriented. At first I let the knocking go, assuming someone who actually lived here would answer. Finally it occurred to me that I had the house key Agathe normally would use and maybe she needed to be let in. I answered the door. No one was there. The walls in these apartments are paper thin, it must have been someone knocking at some other door.

I got ready to go slowly, the dizziness lessening but never really going away. I considered that it might be because of the wine I had with dinner but decided to chalk it up to jet lag instead. I left the apartment and wandered the streets with the vague goal of buying a new clasp for my necklace which had broken when I tried to put it on. I found one place that said they could fix it if I brought it in, but I'm not sure I could find them again. I also had the goal of finding some goat cheese and a baguette for lunch. I had bragged to my friends about the all the cheap goat cheese I'll be eating while I'm here and I figured it was time to start. However, I didn't realize that finding cheap goat cheese in Paris would be so difficult. I easily found several places where goat cheese was sold, but for a higher price than I remembered it costing in my small northern french town of last year. Finally, after 4 or 5 tries, I found goat cheese for less than 2€ and I jumped on it. Now I am back at home and ready for some lunch.

These I saw while out today:
A condom dispenser on the street
Stores names, "Happy" "Good" and "Gossip"(in English)
Two guys playing "Gangham Style" on their phone

Other things of interest:
Agathe's apartment building is broken into 'half floors' starting with 'Entresol A' then 'Entresol B' followed by 1st floor A and then 1st floor B, 2nd A and 2nd B, etc.
There are at least two stores in my neighborhood that sell only prepackaged frozen foods from hors d'oeuvres to dinners and desserts, all in neat rows in closed freezers so the store doesn't get cold.

Is Paris Always Exhausting?

Well, after arriving in Paris feeling rested and excited I headed towards Agathe's apartment. When I reached the last Metro transfer point it was already 8:45AM and thus too late to catch her before work. So I changed course and headed towards her work. Upon arriving to find a dark and locked business, I found a Star Bucks and contacted her by e-mail. Change of plans, Agathe was away on an assignment and the boss would be in at 10AM to give me Agathe's keys.

At around 10:15AM I headed back to Agathe's work. The man who opened the door neither knew Agathe nor had her keys. The building housed several small offices so I sat down on a couch to wait. An hour and a half later, still no boss. I hit the Metro again and headed to Agathe's apartment in the hopes of finding her roommate there and able to let me in.

By this point it was 11:30AM and I was starting to feel exhausted and really ready to be 'home'. No roommate was in to greet me so I went to the Café that was conveniently right next door and had lunch while using their internet. Agathe informed me that her boss had changed her mind and would be at a different location with the keys. I was prepared to just wait for someone to get home instead of lugging my suitcase through the Metro system yet again, however no one would be home until 7PM and that was too long to wait.

So I went and found her boss. It wasn't too far away and the boss was nice and merely said hello, gave me the keys, and good day, no complicated French communication necessary. I hit the Metros for the final time and made it to the apartment where I realized Agathe had not told me which apartment was hers when the mailbox said B27 but none of the doors in the building had numbers next to them. There were only 2 doors on the second level but I was worried that if I tried the key in either door someone would open the door and demand to know what I was doing. So I knocked instead.

A young man opened the door and I told him that I had the house key but had not been informed what apartment it went to. He told me that above the mailboxes there was a list of who lived where. I thanked him and went down the stairs again to take a look at the list. It turns out the apartment was really on the 3rd and a half floor 'gch' which I took to mean on the left, since there were only two doors to each half level. I was right and the key opened the door to an empty apartment with an amazing empty bed with my name on it. (Literally because Agathe had left a note to me there).

I was planning on only sleeping a couple of hours but I turned off my alarm instead and slept until the roommate got home around 7:30. She is quite nice and has just left to have a drink with friends. Now I have about 5 minutes until Agathe should be home. She and her boyfriend have planned to cook a 'real French' dinner for me. Part of the 'real' part is eating late in the evening. For one I think that will work for me since I am still jet-lagged.

Paris

My flight to Paris is complete. It was pretty empty so I ended up with a window seat and the one next to it all to myself. I got pretty comfy and slept most of the way. We had a little drama, first there was something wrong with the caterer so we were delayed and then the Push team went missing so we had to find them before we could push away from the terminal. This made us about an hour late in departing. Right at the end of the flight someone lost their passport and someone else was hysterical, I think it was due to the pressure in her ears being painful. I was supposed to meet up with Agathe for breakfast before she had to leave for work, however due to my delayed flight I missed that chance. The backup plan was for me to meet her at her work were I could get the keys to her apartment and meet her there after work. 

I had a bit of a hassle finding my way around on the Metro, especially as it was rush hour as everyone headed to work and I was dragging my wheely suitcase. Thank goodness it was my small, light one and not my huge one. I made it to where Agathe works only to find it deserted. I headed straight to Starbucks where I checked my mail and had a letter from her informing me that her boss has her keys and will be in the office at 10 and that I should wait in Starbucks. Good because that's where I am. 

I had a yummy fresh orange juice and now just enough internet to last me until 10. I plan on taking a short nap and then exploring around Agathe's neighborhood. I don't really feel like I need a nap because I slept pretty well on the plane however if I want to be alive this evening with Agathe, which I do, I should get some more rest in while she's at work. Yay! I can't wait to lie down flat for the first time in 2 days.

New York

I successfully navigated and mostly stayed awake for my trip to New York. I got some good dozes in on the train ride into the city from the airport, had a lovely lunch and coffee and made it back about 15 minutes after my 2 hour early deadline. And here I am 45 minutes before boarding begins waiting at my gate. 

I met up with the English assistant from the neighboring town whom I met whilst living in France a year ago. She suggested we meet up in Little Italy, about a 45 minute train ride from the airport. Lunch was an intimidating looking, yet yummy, asian-fusion restaurant where I tasted some things I'd never had before and quite enjoyed them. 

Coffee and desert was found at a small café called Café Café which had a yummy cheese cake. We spent the time catching up and reminiscing about old times. It is strange seeing someone you've not kept in contact with for a while and probably won't see again for another long time. You end up telling each other random vignettes of your life. Small entertaining or interesting tidbits that may or may play a large part in the grand scheme of things. In addition you have to do a quick catch up, 'here's what I did since we last talked, here's what I'm doing now, here's what I plan to do in the future.' It is quite a different experience than hanging out with someone you see consistently and who has a fairly clear idea of what your life has been like. 

I feel like my trip to New York was a success (if only I'd been able to see Ally as well) and now I am flying to Paris. Two nights in a row on an airplane, shortened by the time change. I feel alright currently but hopefully I can get some good sleep this shortened night, I should've picked a seat by the window. When I arrive it will be 6:30AM and I have breakfast plans with Agathe. Then she heads off to work and I can take advantage of her bed well she is gone.

Back to France (and a few more blogs)

Hello,
I am again headed to France. A couple of weeks ago, it struck me quite suddenly that the term was almost over and I would be left with a month of unaccounted for time. So I bought a ticket to France because what else was I going to do with all that time? So I will be spending two days in Paris with Agathe (my french exchange student roommate of three years ago), and then the rest of my stay in Rennes with Rachelle (my old college buddy).

Several people jokingly (or seriously) asked me if I was going to blog again, and even more asked me to keep them updated with my doings. Well, I suppose the easiest way to inform everyone of what I'm doing is to add a couple more posts to French Coins while I am away.

I left today. I caught a 4PM shuttle to the airport because the alternative was the 5PM which might not arrive the required 2 hours before my flight. We hit a little traffic but ended up arriving around 5:30, a good 2 and a half hours early. The airport was strangely deserted. I checked my bags and waltzed through security (not literally) amidst friendly smiles and banter from the relaxed staff. There was no one in front or behind me in line. I arrived at my gate a full two hours to spare and was delighted to find outlets for my computer and free internet. So here I am.

I leave at 8PM and arrive in NY tomorrow at 8AM, their time. I have plans to meet up with friends but even if the plans fall through I am looking forward to getting outside a little and maybe finding a nice café in which to sip a coffee. Worse case scenario I plan to find a movie theatre somewhere and bunker down with a good film while I await my next flight. But I don't think it will come to that. My spirits are high, I have good books, movies, and my computer so I will be well entertained. See you on the other side.

Rosetta: The End

Well, it's over. 7 months in France completed (well, 8ish but who's counting?) I learned a lot: about other cultures, the french language, how to live in a foreign country, that I don't ever want to be teacher for real, etc. My last days of class flew by. By the end I had a normal routine and so there was nothing new and exciting to post about. My last week of classes where a bit sparse as one of the teachers had left for New York and some of the students were busy taking exams. We ended up spending at least 3 class periods on 'degustation' for me. This is a french word meaning 'tasting' and indicating that we spent the class period snacking. It is supposed to mean that I was introduced to new french foods but that didn't really happen. Some students made cookies or cake but most brought chips or soda. I put in some effort and made a couple of rounds of pancakes for the students as most had heard of them but never tasted. In the end it was a very easy last week of classes. I spent my last week in France with my grandparents in Paris and then back in Le Touquet packing and cleaning my house. The Paris trip was fun and relaxed and the cleaning and packing was relatively painless. I got the whole deposit back on the house!

I spent my last week in Europe in Germany with my ex-roommate Charlotte. We visited Würzburg, Herrsching, and Bonn. It was a lovely stay with lovely weather and I loved it. Being in Germany was a whole different experience to France, sure it's a different country, but the biggest difference for me was that I don't speak German so everything was either in English or immensely impossible.  I have been inspired to learn German and I hope to enroll in German classes in the fall, and I hope to come back to Germany when I can speak the language.

I got my last month of living assistance, my last paycheck, and my reimbursement for my required voyages to Lille. I am one of the lucky few as most are still waiting for living assistance, reimbursements, etc. I am not expecting any more money to land in my french bank account (but I'm leaving it open for a month or two just in case) and I have all my money in euros waiting to be exchanged for dollars.

I am currently sitting in the Frankfurt airport after a lovely night at a lovely Frankfurt hotel. Boarding is in one hour.

What I got out of this experience:
-Some spending money for this summer.
-7 months work experience as an assistant teacher.
-A better grasp of French.
-My living abroad quota.
-Lots of new friends all over the world.

Rosetta: Little Brats

Some of my students have exams coming up in about two weeks. One of the things they have to do for exams is describe a brochure in English. "This document is a brochure for the **** hotel. You can tell they are a high quality hotel because of the quality of the paper and the classy design." Yeah, I would pretty much die of happiness if any of my students said that. I mostly get comments like, "I can see a picture of a room. I can see a bed in the room." Okay, to be fair one aspect of describing the brochure is to describe the pictures in detail. And then to talk about the text, and then to talk about how the text supports the pictures. In any case this is very difficult for the students who can't even seem to describe the brochure in French much less in English.

I knew I was to have a class with these kids on Wednesday and I decided I was going to help them. So I designed a lesson plan whereby I would give them all blank 'brochures' so they could start by describing the shape, for example, "this is a bifold brochure" "this brochure is a flyer" or "this brochure is a booklet".  The next step would be to partner them up and give one of the partners a brochure with just the pictures on it, the other partner would keep the blank I'd already handed out and they would have to work together, one describing the pictures and their locations and the other drawing them on the blank. The next step was to switch and give the other partner a brochure with just the text. He would then have to describe to his partner the location and content of the text so his partner could add it to the pictures already drawn on the blank brochure. The third step was to give them the complete brochure and have them as partners come up with a full description of images, text, and the relation between the two, and if they liked the brochure or would have changed anything. I then spent about 3 hours creating the brochure (three copies of each, one complete, one with just text, and one with just pictures). I actually enjoyed it and felt creative. It was fun because I used humor in my brochures, for example one hotel was called the Mythical Hotel and instead of contact information they just had a note saying you had to go on a quest to find them. Long story short I was excited to try out my activity.

It went fairly well, the kids had fun and did pretty well with the activity until it came to actually doing the real description at the end at which point they all failed fairly miserably. I was hoping the step by step game would help them see better how to describe a brochure but in the end their 'full-descriptions' were mostly about one paragraph of broken English about either really specific details with no introduction or a general overall description with no detail. Definitely not up to speed for the exams. I had two groups and thus two chances with activity and the worst part was the last group decided class was over about 10 minutes early and that the last two groups wouldn't need to present (I had had each group present their brochure). I had to twist their arms (not literally of course) to stay until the end and to give the presentation. They acted super surly and resentful the whole time. Amazing how that last ten minutes sapped all my energy. Kids really do know how to get what they want because I would have been happier if I'd just let them leave early.

I ended up giving my homemade brochures to the teacher in case she wants to use them again someday. I'm not sure she will but I hope so. I like the idea that I've left something behind. Well, at least I know that next years assistant will hear at least some stories about me, as I have heard some stories about the assistant who came before.

Rosetta: Lesson Learned

So school has gotten to have a sort of rhythm. I have a pattern I follow and nothing really new or extraordinary has happened lately, which is why I haven't been blogging as often. However, today I was with Laurent and a full class of 15 and 16 year olds. Now, normally the class is split into two groups and Laurent has one hour with group 1 and then later in the day, 1 hour with group two. This means he has about 14 students at a time. Of these 14 he usually allots me 4. Well, once or twice a week he sees the whole 28 of them at once, this means he is working very hard to make sure that both groups achieve the same goals so that when he has them together they are at the same level. Today we had both groups and instead of giving just 4 like he normally does, Laurent gave me group 2. This meant for 25 minutes I was alone with 14 students and we were supposed to talk about the video we had just seen. We struggled through the ingredients they had mentioned on the video with me writing them on the board (as I had done with previous classes with Laurent present). There were 4 or 5 kids involved, 3 or 4 kids chatting, and two kids with their heads down on their desks. Finally we got through the list of ingredients and I could tell I didn't have their attention. So I decided to put them into groups and make them decide the order in which the ingredients were used. This was about 15 minutes before the period ended and I made the colossal mistake of deciding to mix things up and put them in groups with people they were not sitting next to. So I counted off, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, until all the students had a number and then I designated an area for ones, and area for twos and an area for threes. The kids took a full 10 minutes acting confused and standing up and wandering around or refusing to stand up. By this time we only had a couple of minutes left. I tried to hurry them into groups but those kids were pro at pretending to willingly do whatever I ask but only one at a time when I specifically asked an individual. So no one really disobeyed me they just feigned confusion and ignorance until there wasn't much time left. Finally I after they were in groups and after I has insisted they find pen and paper (which they didn't want to do because they knew if they just waited another couple of seconds it would be too late) and after they had all agreed they understood what they were supposed to do, I think maybe one or two of them had written 'onions' on their paper before the bell rang. All in all it was a complete disaster and Laurent apologized and told me he wouldn't stick me with the whole group any more. So we are going back to groups of 4 or 5 and I am even more decided in my choice NEVER to become a teacher.

Rosetta: Pulling Teeth

I had class this morning from 11-1 with Marylise. I had gone to bed early last night in the hopes of waking up early with lots of energy. However, as I lay in bed for two hours before giving up and turning on the light and then staying up another hour before finally falling asleep, I did not feel well rested at all. Marylise gave me the handout she expected me to teach and told me what she wanted from me, well intermingled with what she will expect from me on Friday as well as what will be needed for some future Wednesday most likely about three weeks away. She is always telling me way too much all at once about events that may or may not even happen in the future. Anyway, I managed to sort out what was on today's agenda (two one hour lessons on a text explaining the new trend in British cuisine) and she sent me off to teach about 10 students. The students were lively and excitable and generally seemed to have a good time although it was difficult to get them to understand or to listen to each other when they were speaking. The second group of 10 however was very quiet and did not seem to understand a word I said. This was very frustrating and I felt like I put in an extreme amount of effort to drag everyone through the article (which I find only vaguely interesting and in most ways unimportant). I don't believe they had a very high comprehension level and this group didn't even seem able to indicate what word or sentence they didn't understand. I talked to Marylise about it and she asked me what I thought would be a good solution. So for next time I have class with them I am going to go over the lesson plan (she's already given it to me) and I am going to pick out key points and vocab words and design my own lesson plan that I think will be more at the students' level. We will see how that goes (I have three whole weeks to do that though as I will not see these particular students for a while).

Then I had a 3 hour break in which I at lunch, chatted with my roommates, and bought some folders to keep all my papers organized (inspired by Marylise's desire to give me papers weeks in advance in random bundles).

My two hours of class with Laurent went much much better. The first hour was spent with him in class mostly just watching him do a listening activity with the students and a sound clip based on a Agatha Christie novel. It involved an old lady sitting in front of a radio when something 'eerie' happened (eerie of course being one of the first words you should teach non-native English speakers). My first thought was of course, "Ooh, Mousetrap," this being a play by Agatha Christie I staged managed a year ago which had an old lady sitting in front of a radio right before the lights go out and she gets murdered. However, it turned out to be one of her many other stories that include this scene and I was a bit disappointed. The second hour with Laurent we watched a three minute film (twice) and then he sent 7 students with me to speak about the film. Next year these students will have an exam which consists of watching a three minute film, having a two minute break to scribble notes, watching the film a second time, having 12 minutes to write a summary, and then being sent into a room alone with the examiner and having to talk about the THREE MINUTE film for 20 minutes. I have already been asked by Annie to play the role of the examiner with some of her students and it is excruciating trying to get these kids to talk for 10 minutes much less 20. Partly because they didn't understand the video, or they don't understand me, or they don't have the English to speak their thoughts, but partly because they are high schoolers and they don't have the tools it takes to watch a video and then talk about it pointing out details and making connections to their own lives. All in all, I was very happy to have the chance to help out a group of Laurent's students by explaining what would be expected of them and teaching them how to talk about such a short video for a long period of time. I made them review the details which I wrote on the board in a logical order and then I put them in groups and had them try to write a summary of what they would say for 20 minutes. After they had come to a stop I told them the secret: you can talk about almost anything as long as it is in English and semi-related to the video. The video takes place in Canada? Great! Have you ever been to Canada? Would you like to go there? The video is about cooking salmon? Okay, how do you cook salmon? Have you ever cooked it like that? Would you like to taste salmon cooked like that? The salmon was cooked outside on an open fire? Have you ever cooked outside? Have you ever burnt what you were cooking?

So I had a good time with these students and they seemed to understand the enormity of talking for 20 minutes straight as well as take my advice into consideration. I am glad I ended my day this way because I was definitely feeling deflated after my first two hours of kiddos.

*On a side-note, I was writing with a small piece of chalk and it turns out it was too small because horror of horrors, I scratched my nail slightly on the black board. This is something I have always dreaded and has always given me the hibijibis just thinking about (it does now just remember it) but when it happened in real life... It wasn't too bad. I think my imagination is worse than reality on this one. I flinched slightly and then ignored it and got on with teaching.

Rosetta: C'est La Vie.

The weather finally shifted to being cold enough to freeze the grass and damp and rainy. I've been keeping warm though, either in bed in my pajamas or outside with long johns and layers. I had a pretty good weekend. We had an impromptu fajita night here on Friday. The unfortunate part was that it was so impromptu that I had just eaten dinner when I found out about it so I only managed to eat one fajita when the time came a couple hours later. Saturday night we were invited to Florie's house to play Trivial Pursuit in French, it was very difficult. Not only did I very rarely know an answer, there were several times I didn't even understand the question. But we had a good time anyways and laughed a lot. Today, I spent of the day inside and then this evening we went to our landlady's nephew's house for dinner. He had prepare a Raclette for us. A Raclette is a type of cheese that is eaten in a very specific way. There is an apparatus the is like a little box with slots in the sides you can slide your mini-tray into and then it heats up really hot. So you put a slice of cheese on your tray, slide it into the 'oven' and let it get nice and sizzly and melted. Then you pour it over whatever you want. This evening we had steamed potatoes and smoked ham with our Raclette, it was very good. Afterwards, we had some homemade chocolate cake. We got to take home all the leftovers (as well as some chicken) because Arnaud is heading to Paris for a week. Dinner was delicious and entertaining and I love leftovers so all in all it was a very good evening. I only have three hours of school tomorrow in the afternoon as one of my usual classes has an exam but maybe I will go in early and prepare a couple of activities out of the English activity books my teacher lent me. Some of the activities actually seem pretty entertaining. More on that when I've done the activities and can tell you how they turned out.

Rosetta: Here Comes the Weekend

Okay, so I missed a class yesterday because I randomly thought it was at 5 instead of 4. So today I when I saw the teacher I went up to her and apologized for missing her class. Her response was to agree that I had missed class yesterday and then go on to explain to me for half an hour what I would be doing with her class next week. She had completely moved on. At the end of our conversation I apologized again and she then told me that it was maybe even better that I hadn't shown up because 1. she had a lot of things she had to do with her students and 2. there was a presentation by a couple of the students that was a real flop. I had wanted to see the presentation because I had helped them prepare for it a bit but apparently they didn't have good visual aids and they were not very interesting. She said she was glad I had missed it. So I am off the hook on that one. And on a related note, I will only be working 6 hours this week. I very rarely end up working my full 12 hours.

Another thing that I find a bit odd is the way Laurent has me run groups. Usually he gives me a group of about 4 to do with as I like as long as we speak English, but the last couple of times he has given me a specific agenda (talk about quantities or teach them about the elements of a print ad). This is all well and good, except that he gives me four students and he teaches the rest of the class the exact same thing. So the four that are with me the first half an hour, hear it from me and then go back to catch the tail end of Laurent teaching the same thing, and the group I have for the second half hour has already had the lesson with Laurent, and the other 12 students in the class only get the one lesson directly from Laurent. I feel like there has to be a more productive way to do this. And then today, he had to go arrange some things in the middle of his two hour class. So as usually I had 4 groups for half an hour each. But his other students had like a half hour break where they waited in the hall (because they are not allowed in the classroom by themselves). I offered to babysit the whole class while he was gone so they wouldn't have to wait in the halls but he said he preferred for me to just take the groups. So that's that. I finished my two hours of work today, apologized to Marylise for yesterday and walked home. I have one hour of class tomorrow and one hour of tutoring and then it is my weekend! I am very very happy and I mostly attribute it to the music I listen to on my walk to and from school. If I had to pick the one item that has made me the happiest while I have been in France I would say it is my iShuffle. (Of course my computer would top my list except that is doesn't necessarily make me happy, it's more that it keeps me from being sad). Oh, and the weather has been so amazing for January, that keeps my spirits up as well.

Rosetta: Improv Class? But I Haven't Showered in Days!

Today I arrived at my first class (1pm, gotta love Mondays) and Annie walked me into her classroom where she hands me a stack of papers in front of the students. I had about 30 seconds to look over the papers and ask any questions before she sent me and half her class to go work. Turns out there was a list of new phrases for them to learn, a receptionist at a hotel role play set-up, and a role play scenario with three different guest outlines. Good luck, action. I am getting pretty good at bluffing my way through her classes, however usually she at least gives me a list with instructions such as, read phrases while stressing the importance of... or review yada yada. This time however I was on my own. We read the phrases aloud. They were ridiculously specific like: children under 12 eat free if their parents are eating in the dining room, and our hotel is built on different levels but there is a lift to each floor and gently inclines ramps. I explained to them that these phrases aren't important to know word for word (I had my fingers crossed that Annie would agree with me and not decide to have some kind of test on exact memorization of these phrases) and then we went over the phrases again with the students underlining the important vocabulary words it WOULD be important to memorize. I was pretty proud of this impromptu cover of the material and we moved on to role play. I had the students work in pairs to write and then present brief check-in skits using the information provided. And then I assigned three 'guests' because we had three motive outlines such as, 'you are tired and just want to get to your room as soon as possible,' or 'you want to know if they have a children's menu and if you can get an extra bed in your room.' This lasted conveniently exactly the full hour and then I got to try it again with the other half of the class. We were going a bit too quickly the second time around so I slipped another activity in between the two role plays. I asked them what order they should do things when checking in a guest and I wrote the order on the board: say hello and ask how you can help, find out the clients name...etc.

Next I had class with Laurent. We sent me 3 students at a time and asked me to teach them about quantities (which he listed for me in my note book): many, much, a lot, lots of, few, a few, a little, little. And so I taught the 3 students how to use quantities for 25 minutes and then did the same thing again with a different group of 3. This was very difficult for me, especially explaining the difference between 'a little' and 'little.' I think I got the idea across though and I got better for the second time around.

My second hour with Laurent he gave me two very low level students and I reviewed present simple conjugation. I am, you are, he is etc. I had an hour to prepare for this as he had told me in advance and I happened to have an hour break. I used my hour to devise a little handout explaining the rules. I amused myself by setting it up with 'thou' in my table
I                  We
Thou           You
He/she        They

With the left column being singular and the right column being plural. I explained that he plurals are all conjugated the same and that the students are lucky because we have gotten rid of 'thou' and so you singular is even conjugated the same. And to be even luckier, 'I' is usually conjugated the same too. So all they had to do was memorized the conjugation for I, you, we, you, they and the conjugation for he, she, and it. I feel like we made some pretty good progress. I told Laurent about it later and he said not to tell them about 'thou' because that will confuse them. I can see how it might confuse them but I feel like my students understood. Plus, I secretly hope some of them with try to use 'thou' in every day life.

It felt fairly useful but it was not as fun as some of my other classes with Laurent's students have been. I have started playing crazy eights with the students but I have drawn a star on about half of the cards and every time a student plays a card with a star on it I make them tell a story. I also used this as a good reason to review, when, where, who, and what, as the key elements of the story they should tell. I play too and when it is my turn to tell a story I amuse myself by saying things like, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, a young boy saved the galaxy," and seeing if they recognize the story.

Annie keeps giving me Tuesday mornings off. This means I don't have class until 5 tomorrow evening. This is good however because the plumber is supposed to come fix our shower. It started draining really slowly about a month ago and finally got to the point where it would never drain completely so we called the plumber. Last Thursday they sent someone who opened up the back of our tub and looked around but couldn't fix it. He must have opened something else though because after that if we used the tub or even the sink in the bathroom we would get water dripping down from the ceiling in the living room which we caught in tubs so it wouldn't damage our wood flooring. They said someone would come fix it on Friday and after waiting all day on Friday and calling them several times, someone finally arrived at about 5 'til 5. He took one look and rudely announced that there was nothing he could do because 1. he was not the plumber and 2. it was 5 o'clock and he was no longer on duty. We all agreed it was pretty badly handled that instead of just telling us that the real plumber was sick and that they would send someone after the weekend, they made us wait at home all day on Friday for someone who couldn't help in the first place. So after all weekend with no shower and no use of the sink in our bathroom someone was finally able to fix the shower today. He had to put some glue on it that still has to dry and tomorrow he will come finish it up. This means I still can't shower (don't even ask me how long it has been) but at least we know we will be able to shower again tomorrow evening.

Rosetta: La Rentrée

Today was the first day back from break. I only had one hour of class this afternoon so it was a pretty smooth start. Marylise told me that I would either watch the presentation on England that I helped two students to make, or if they weren't ready, I would take a group to the library to do a small project with dictionaries. When we arrived in class the students weren't ready for their presentation so she assigned some students to come with me to the library and then proceeded to do half an hour of a worksheet with them while I stood quietly at the front of the class before sending the group off with me for the last 15 minutes of class. The worksheet we did was a letter written to a friend about a trip to Ireland. The activity was to rewrite the letter changing the slang to make the letter more formal as if it were written to an 'old uncle'. I thought it was a bit ridiculous to send the students to look in a dictionary to translate slang words like, 'hang around' 'out of this world' and 'mates'. But I was surprised, they were all there in the dictionary (except for 'fab' I had to translate that one myself). The students were very focused and worked well... for the 15 minutes we had. And that was it, the first day of class.