And then it gets better...

I bought a ticket to go home for Christmas break, and things are going much better overall. I imagine that this comes as a direct result of knowing that I will be back home, if even for a short time, but I'm going to take every positive feeling that I get and just hold on to it.

Classes have been going well, my kids are behaving themselves (even if they're still a bit talkative, or "bavard"), and the lessons are going pretty smoothly. I still miss people at home, but have come to terms with the fact that I can see them later if I don't manage to do so during the break, and that long-distance communication is still a form of communication. Not as nice as face-to-face, but still good.

I also decided to move to a new place, starting late January, and I couldn't be happier! It isn't "ideal," per se, but it is a beautiful little house with a garden and small yard. I will (if I get to live here) be living with two very nice French girls, a little out of the city center, but in a beautiful neighborhood.

This blog post sums up the experience better than my ill-timed posts ever could:

http://www.brookerene.com/2010/11/everyone-take-their-pencils-out-of.html

Life Goes On...

            My long weekend in Avignon was AMAZING. I remembered so much of the city, got to meet some of Nicky’s great assistant friends, and ate home-made dinners chez Nicky every night. Seeing the Palais des Papes was something I had always hoped I would get to do again, and it didn’t disappoint. It reminds me of all of the great moments I spent in the city with my friends three years ago, and I think will always serve as the focal point for my memories of Avignon.

            But as life tends to go on, bringing with it shocks and disturbances as often as it brings good times with old friends in places we love, I found myself a bit disheartened when I returned to Chambéry. Having spent part of the weekend at Nicky’s using her much more reliable internet reconnecting with people back home, I came to the realization that I managed to make some really terrible life choices before leaving for France. Add this to the stress of needing to actually finish my graduate school applications and my frustration with teaching elementary schoolchildren with whom I don’t really share a common language, and the past week or so has been rough to say the least. I never thought I would be the kind of person to want to leave Europe (or a job right after graduation) but I’m finding myself close to the point of just buying a plane ticket and going home, and ending my contract early. The only reason I really want to stay is because I want to be able to move on to bigger things next year, i.e. grad school, and I know that I wouldn’t be a serious candidate if I left this contract early.

            Aside from that angsty mess, things are going as well as could be imagined. I’m getting help with lesson planning and am coming up with new games to play with my kids. I started teaching Thanksgiving this week, so at least a small portion of my lessons is going to drawing handprint turkeys, a welcome relief from the emotional strain that accompanies teaching children (especially those who still can’t read in any language, let alone a foreign language). Things will go on, and get better, and I just want to be able to make it to that point with some sanity intact. Also, I think I am boycotting boxed wine. It makes me an emotional (and belligerent) wreck. Sorry to anyone involved in Friday night’s rambling attempts at serious, emotional conversation.

AVIGNON!

Tomorrow I get to go back to Avignon, where I did my study abroad as a freshman. I've missed the city so much, and have realized in the past three years just how much I took it for granted. Provence was definitely one of the friendliest, most beautiful places I've ever been and I can't wait to see it again.

Shit, it's been a while

So for anyone who has actually been reading this, I'm REALLY sorry that I have been sucking so terribly at updating it. I didn't realize it had been nearly a month! I'll try to make this post long enough to make up for your time.

First off, you may have heard or read about the protests here. They were definitely happening, and in some cases were kind of a huge nuisance. I had to miss work one day and get a ride from my conseiller pedagogique (it's kind of like a manager, I guess) another day. Then I got stranded in Grenoble, about an hour train ride away from home, because the trains apparently stopped two hours earlier than normal. Fortunately I had a floor to sleep on, thanks to some incredible assistant friends, but it was still convenient at the very least. My city was especially bad at having what would be called "les manifestations" in addition to your typical and regularly seen "greves". That would be the difference between a protest and a strike, to translate into English as well as I can. I saw in one day: a bus stop window smashed in, two older ladies running away from the riot police's tear gas, and something burning in front of one of our only landmarks here in the city. These were all due to younger people who almost definitely did it just for the fuck of it, and not out of a sense of concern over the issue at hand, the extension of the retirement age by two years.

I taught my classes for two weeks and then had a two week vacation. It was ROUGH getting accustomed to teaching, but I finally got into something resembling a rhythm. Now that I'm back after the long break, though, I'm finding that the experience really didn't help all that much! I'm still running out of material early, but I imagine that this is all a part of teaching. No one ever goes into teaching already good at it. Lesson planning is HARD. That said, I already have students that I can tell are really good at English, and in some of my classes the kids are all kinds of good at it already. I have one particular class that it really is fun to go in every day, even though they're the ones who make me finish way before I'm supposed to (they're super smart).

During the break I went to Paris. It was incredible! I didn't really dig it too much the last time I went, but this time I had zero time conflicts and I was there for longer, so it was much better. I also got to visit several gay bars and clubs, which was awesome. By the way, if you're freaked out by any of the following, don't go to gay bars and clubs in Paris: having a creepy old guy watch you pee, creepily, and then follow you out of the bar, where you have to walk very quickly to lose his drunk ass in the street; watching a guy shower IN a bar; getting your ass and junk grabbed by strangers as you walk past; and seeing two shirtless dudes dance in a cage. I got to be a super tourist and take a shit-ton of pictures, which was perfect. Next time I go I don't need to take a camera at all, which is super convenient because mine is really big. I took just over 300 pics... which although that seems excessive, it really isn't too bad. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur, Pere Lachaise, Tuileries, the outside of the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou, and the Notre Dame. Not

Another post, finally

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to update this blog, but my internet is pretty shitty in my foyer and I’ve been super busy. Now I can give updates on all that’s been happening! I had a lot of paperwork to do last week to make sure that I was up to date on becoming a real person in the French government’s eyes, which I think I’ve finished (for now). I will still need to go to a doctor’s appointment for a general physical to get my cards and social security number and such, but that shouldn’t be for a couple weeks at least. I had two days of orientation / teaching on Thursday and Friday, and I think that I learned a lot of helpful stuff to use in future lessons.

I started teaching yesterday, at my school in Bourget du Lac. I had only kids from 5-7 years old and it was so much harder than I expected! Fortunately, by the last lesson things were getting much easier and I think that it won’t take long to feel fairly comfortable in front of the classes. I had to miss today because there was a strike and I thought the buses weren’t running (I waited for 30 minutes and my bus never showed) but then just as I got to my bedroom I saw the bus drive away… lesson learned: the French are tricky bitches.

I spent the weekend in Grenoble. It’s one of the major cities super close to where I’m living, and it was really fun! I met a bunch of cool assistants and took some good pictures and walked through a bad-ass cave. Oh and I rode on this thing called a téléphérique, which is basically a plastic egg that carries you up a zip line wire to the top of a mountain. Okay, all of that was either super over-simplified or exaggerated, but if you google it and look for a picture you’ll see what I mean.

I’ve been in France for two weeks officially, as of today. I started thinking about the fact that it felt like my study abroad lasted a long time and it was only 12 weeks, so I would have been one-sixth of the way done at this point. My contract this time around, by comparison, is 9 months, or about 36 weeks, so I’m one-eighteenth of the way done… HUGE difference, so hopefully I don’t get too bored, because that would super suck.

First Days in Chambery

I'm finally back in France and it feels great! Sort of... I happened to get a really bad cold mid-flight and I'm still dealing with that, but French medicine can do wonders so I'm hoping for a quick recovery. The worst part about not feeling well is that I couldn't breathe or taste when I first arrived, and I still can't intermittently... for example on my way to dinner tonight.

That nonsense aside, I spent a lot of the day today exploring the city by myself, which was really fun. It's not a huge place; but me being, well, me, I got lost at least a dozen times and re-traced my steps in about half of those instances. I bought a towel, which was SUPER expensive, and a card to convert my cell phone into a  French pay-as-you-go phone, but I still have to go to an Algerian store and have someone "debloquer" it; that's the French way of saying that it needs to be unlocked for use with a French SIM card. I still haven't opened a bank account or gotten a bus pass yet, but I have big plans for doing that tomorrow.

I am thus far really pleased with my foyer (kind of like a dorm/apartment/hostel) and I can see one of the coolest parts of the nearby mountain from my bedroom window. Even more importantly, I have my own bathroom! I haven't talked to anyone here yet because I still can't get two words out without whoever I'm talking to realizing that I'm American and my French is super rusty, but I imagine I'll get to that in time. So far as the lady who runs the joint knows, I'm the only American here, and I think the only native English speaker. It's a little intimidating, but I think it's also a great help because I feel as though in less than two days I've covered as much ground as I did in a week during my study abroad three years ago.

I have a place to live!

My contact person in France is kind of a superhero... or at least to me he is. He found me a place to live! I can either stay there short term (a week) or long term (the duration of my contract) and I will have a room waiting for me when I get to France on the 28th! He's even picking me up from the train station, which is a huge weight off of my shoulders, believe me. It's not that it's difficult to figure out public transportation in France, per se, but problems naturally arise after some 18 hours of traveling by air and train and while carrying three heavy bags onto buses.

Here is a link for my new lodgings. It's called "La Clairiere" (there is an accent over the first "e" which I can't for the life of me figure out). It's what's called a "foyer", something like a cross between a hostel and a dorm. I hope that things work out here because I would like to be able to meet people quickly and of about the same age as myself, and it's close to the Universite de Savoie (again, an accent over the "e" in universite, but I don't know how to do that yet). I'll be in a tiny 10m squared room, but my sincere hope is to not be in that room very often. I also get two meals a day for something like two euro per meal if I try their dining option, which I plan to do.


A lot of stress has been relieved already, and I'm looking forward to leaving even more than yesterday! If only I could get the focus to write my statements of purpose I'd be doing great...

Less than a week to go...

I didn't actually end up being all that productive last week, what with getting caught in tornadoes and celebrating my birthday and all, so I have to make up for that lack of drive this week. My bags are nearly packed, and I think I managed to take only one checked and two carry-on bags; a feat for which I am immensely proud. I talked to one of the Psych professors at OU about applying to graduate school and I need to start researching faculty, reading research articles, and start my statement of purpose soon. Mostly, though, I'm just excited and ready to leave!

Speaking of leaving, I still don't technically have a place to go once I get into my city. I am waiting to hear back from my contact person from my school district and the other American assistants in my city, but if I haven't gotten any word by tomorrow I'm going to look into hostels and / or hotels. I'm not all that worried about finding a place for just a few days, or even finding a long-term place, when I get there. The beauty of traveling in France, if my last experience is at all representative, is that it is very easy to find affordable lodging at the last minute.

I will be getting rid of my American cell phone once I find the time to replace it with a French one, so don't expect to receive a response from my number as of... let's just go ahead and say Monday.

Back to work now... tons of stuff to do before I'm ready!

But here is a picture from the Jersey Shore birthday shuffle :

Update

This week I'm babysitting and finally decided to get my life together, so I'm correcting my CV, writing my statement of purpose, and starting to read up on medical judgment and decision making for grad school applications. To get ready for France (I leave in two weeks!) I'm looking for a French bank, looking more thoroughly at apartments in France, and checking out where I can stay for the first week or so while I check out the apartments in person. I don't really want to get into a lease without seeing a place first since I'm going to be living there for so long, and it shouldn't be too difficult to find a hostel or other place to crash while I look at places.


Also, birthday this Sunday!  A full weekend is planned, including a HUGE dinner. Hopefully there will be pictures to post later.

FIRST POST

Ok, so I started this blog a little early so that I could give an introduction of what I'm going to be writing about for anyone who doesn't know all the intimate details.. I also might post some things about applying to grad school which is turning out to be almost as laborious a process as it was getting all of my visa materials ready in about two days.

I'm working in a city in France for the French government teaching English as an "assistant d'une langue vivante" for an academic school year. I don't really know a whole lot more than that, because all of the information given so far has been centered around just making sure that the assistant(e)s know where to be and when.

But I'll be in Chambéry on September 28th, and in Grenoble from October 1-3rd for my orientation, or "stage" in French. There I'll hopefully find out what I'm actually doing this school year more specifically than just teaching 6-11 year olds in one, two, or three elementary schools. I'll also hopefully (fingers crossed) have a place to live by that point.

My contract runs from the orientation on October 1st all the way until June 30th, but since my visa doesn't expire until next September that leaves some leeway for me to travel through the country in July if I have enough money. I'd love to be there for Bastille Day, just to see what it's like.

Like I said, I'll be teaching in Chambéry, France, a city I'd never heard of before being assigned to work there for 9 months. According to the not-extensive, mostly wikipedia research that I've done (I may have graduated from college, but I still use the shortcuts of any masterful, lazy undergrad) it seems like a pretty cool place. It's nestled in between two ranges of the Alps and is apparently well known for its natural beauty. Close to some of the world's best ski resorts and crystal-clear lakes, it is situated about an hour's train ride from both Switzerland and Italy.

I can't wait to take some pictures of the locale to share, but I guess I'll have to be patient for just a little bit longer.