France is pretty serious about the holidays. Shops are allowed to be open on Sundays two weeks before Christmas, which is kind of a big deal. As aforementioned, there is a cute little Christmas market in the center of town. Stalls selling food exhibited their wares of foie gras, assorted sausages (bull and deer meat sausages; hazelnut or mushroom flavored sausage, anyone?), tartiflette (cheese, potatoes, bacon served up hot), vin chaud (hot, spiced wine), churros, crepes, waffles, candy, and chestnuts (yes, roasted over an open fire, how cute). Hand-made jewelry, pottery, and trinkets are also sold at the market. I got many Christmas gifts here. The center of town is packed, as can be imagined. It’s not much different from the states, with the sole exception being the total exclusion of religion in the holiday festivities. In Winston, on Reynolda road, there is always a nativity scene set-up at a major intersection. I have yet to see a nativity scene and was hard pressed to find a card that said “Merry Christmas” instead of the secular “best wishes.” I have several Muslim students in my classes and a few weeks ago, many were absent. They were allowed to miss school to celebrate the end of Ramadan, eid-el-fitr. When we discussed Christmas in class, I asked some of the Muslim girls if they had it at their home. They said no, they got presents at their fete at the end of Ramadan. I thought it was interesting that they were allowed to miss school; I don’t know what the policy is in the US but I think it certainly meshes well with the French education system, reserving Wednesdays for “religious education” so that it doesn’t occur in the schools and treating everyone equal, even to the extent of religious holidays. Staying with this secular notion, I haven’t seen a single Jesus around. In teaching about Christmas, I discovered that Christmas dinner is quite different from in the states. The one commonality: turkey. The French accompany that with oysters, smoked salmon, foie gras, and escargots. They wash that all down with Champagne and eat a buche (log) of chocolate ice cream/crème as dessert. And they eat this the 24th, 25th, and 31st. And they call thanksgiving the food holiday, yeah right. Some families might eat frog legs, but surprisingly, that whole idea is a false stereotype. I know many Frenchies that have never tried them.
This next comment is completely un-related to Christmas, but I found it interesting recently. In the US, we make a lot of movies and they are in English, obviously. When we get another country’s films, it’s pretty rare that we dub it and thus we are used to watching foreign films with subtitles. Foreign films, however, are not that popular in the US, so maybe that’s why we don’t have a huge dubbing industry. France loves to dub movies and French people love dub films. In fact, I had a French person tell me that they preferred the dubbed Harrison Ford voice to the original (blasphemy). “Version Francaise (VF),” as these films are called, are beyond annoying. First, the voices don’t match up with the mouths. Second, you lose a lot of the character when you take away their voice. Third, I understand dubbed films much better than original French movies, and I think it’s because they dumb down the translations or something. I ask French people how can they watch classics like Forrest Gump in French? It’s appalling. Maybe it’s my American pride coming out, but I refuse to watch a VF. Luckily, there is a theatre that plays the films in VO (version orignale). But in the French people’s defense, it would get annoying reading all the time, since a lot of the movies do come from the states.
I am ready for the vacation; Morocco and Paris here I come!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Bienvenue, l’hiver (welcome, winter)
So what’s been going on here since the last time I wrote (click on the links for pictures!!):
I went to Toulouse the weekend before Veteran’s day. Toulouse is in Southern France, about a 6 hour drive from here. I went with my French friends, Julien, Clara, and Foufoush. We left late on Friday night because they had to work, so we got to Toulouse around 3am, went to a party until around 5am and then finally slept. The next day we checked out Toulouse, dubbed the rose city because of the color of the bricks on all its buildings, which was pretty cool to see. We then went to a friend’s house for a birthday party (before that we helped him pick out a motorcycle jacket for his birthday). Unfortunately, Clara and I both had to work Monday (the others were taking off Monday and making a four day weekend until Veteran’s day, lucky) so we took the train back to Orleans on Sunday. It was a quick trip, but I had a really good time. I got to hear a “southern” accent in French, which was cool (Orleans is supposed to have the most neutral accent in the country, whereas the north and south have very strong accents).
Two weeks ago, my friend from high school, Christina, came to visit from London. We went to Chambord, a chateau about an hour from here, with two other Americans and a handful of French friends. It was cold, but gorgeous and really fun to see. We also had a raclette party (very popular here; it’s easy to accommodate a lot of people with unlimited amounts of ham, cheese, and potatoes). It was a good weekend, full of reminiscing about Winston-Salem good times.
Thanksgiving was an absolute hoot. We decided that we Americans would cook up a real thanksgiving dinner. There were 5 Americans that participated, and we made loads of macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and green beans. It’s a good thing we made a lot of food, because 25 French and other nationalities came to eat with us. We barely had enough space in the kitchen to accommodate everyone. No, we didn’t get a whole turkey, but we loaded up on breasts and legs and baked them. After dinner, we all made hand turkeys describing all that we were grateful for. It was awesome, having all my friends there, American and French, enjoying our lovely “food” holiday.
Christmas here looks promising. They started decorating the streets in the middle of October, and apparently the Joan of Arc statue will be surrounded by an ice skating rink to open soon. Additionally, tons of little stalls are going up that will sell Christmas wares. Every street has huge lights hanging across, wishing everyone happy holidays. The commercial center has bright lights and Christmas trees that are already lit.
As for me, the residence is shutting down for the holidays, but no worries, I am going to Morocco! It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, as I desperately searched for somewhere warm to spend the holidays (though Morocco isn’t that much warmer, it’s in the 50s). I will be going the 22nd through the 26th with a friend (Lizzie, I went on spring break with her in Senegal) and coming back to Paris to meet Dad and Aaron the 27th through the 2nd. I am very excited about the holidays, but I gotta teach the students Rudolph and other Christmas stories/songs over the next two weeks first.
p.s. If you leave comments on my blog, could you be so kind as to leave a signature? I would love to know who you are!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Bon Appétit!
I’m in France, how can we not discuss the cuisine? I have mostly been cooking for myself (way cheaper) but I will indulge you in some of my experiences with French food.
1. Baguettes – Perhaps you have an image of a French person crossing the street with baguette in hand. That is a reality… every day, French people visit the Boulangerie (Bakery) to get a baguette for breakfast, lunch and dinner (ok, maybe they don’t go 3 times, but I assure you they go at least once a day). Baguettes don’t keep very well, thus the daily ritual. Bread is important at meals; it can help you get the last bit of meat off your plate, and it is totally appropriate to use it to mop up the sauce (yes, clean your plate!). And without baguettes, where would you put your cheese?
2. Cheese – if you remember me as the child who loved American cheese and cheesewiz, you must know my reaction when encountered with the cheese section at the grocery store. Cheeses that are usually quite expensive in the US (Roquefort or Gruyere, to name a few) are locally produced and cheaper. Goat cheese, sheep cheese, cheese that is black and smells horrible (stinky cheese, anyone?), yes you can find it in your local shop.
3. Sausage – also known as Charcuterie, sausage is very popular here. Not your breakfast patty, and quite frankly I don’t want to know how it’s made, the sausages here come in all kinds of variety. I tried andouillette which was described to me as having a “strong smell” and I thought it was quite good. You can imagine my surprise when I read the English translation (chitterlings). Lardon, which some say is just bacon in a fattier form, is also very popular in cooking. Honestly, I don’t know how French people stay so thin, because between sausage and cheese, they are pretty much consuming 100 percent fat.
4. Game creatures – at a Saturday market, I watched a child with amusement as he passed a basket full of life rabbits, tapping his mother’s shoulder and pointing. The next stand was butchering rabbits, and I think the little boy got a dose of reality. Duck and goose is also popular (foie gras is good, though my love of waterfowl may outweigh my desire to eat their livers) along with horse (…. Yes, not kidding). Sorry to break the stereotype, but apparently snails and frog legs are only popular dishes for Christmas dinner or other special occasions. Mussels and oysters can be eaten any day, however.
5. Wine – yes a glass of wine in a restaurant is cheaper than soda. And you can find very cheap bottles of wine in the store (I’m talking 2 euros for a Bordeaux!) Wine is often used in cooking, and don’t let a French person tell you they don’t know anything about wines. Order foie gras and a glass of red and expect their disapproval. Two weeks ago, the Beaujolais came out and flooded all the stores and bars. The Beaujolais tradition is essentially a bunch of vineyards racing to get their wine out first. Now, if you know anything about wine, you can guess that a wine from 2008 isn’t going to have the best taste (it hasn’t had enough time to really develop its flavors). The French people talked about how “degueulasse” (worse than disgusting) and I can’t say that I was particularly impressed either. But it’s a tradition so…
6. Coffee – order a coffee, you get an espresso, in a tiny cup, served very hot and requires a lot of sugar. But I am a total coffee addict. Normally served after you have finished eating (not while you eat), it is very popular in France. Picture this, sitting in a café wearing your beret and sailor shirt, sipping your coffee and discussing existentialism. (ok, that never happened, but doesn’t it just seem so French?) I’ll never go to starbucks again, mark my words.
7. Desserts – Pastries (chocolate croissants, tarts, crumbles) can be purchased at the bakery. One popular item is the tarte tatin, an upside down apple tarte. Ice cream appears on most menus, along with chocolate mousse and crème brulee. Actually, desserts are probably the easiest things to order in France because they are called the same in the U.S. Cheese is often a dessert (an assortment plate). And of course waffles and crepes drenched in chocolate are good too.
8. Non- GMO – in the US we often get a lot of disapproval from Europe about our use of Genetically Modified Organisms. If they do cause cancer, 22 years of consuming those means I am doomed. I will say though I think there is a difference in the tastes of some items, like beef, chicken, and fruit (as in they taste a lot better). You can even order a burger raw here… wouldn’t suggest it though.
9. Health Warnings? – When you see an advertisement in the US for cigarettes, it is always accompanied with a health warning, albeit brief (consuming tobacco may lead to addiction or something along those lines). Well here, coca cola, cheese, cookies, all have warning labels. “Avoid eating too much fat and sugars and get lots of exercise” marks both print and tv ads. This is new in France following concerns about obesity and you can imagine the difficulties that could follow (how do you tell French people to stop eating their fatty cheese?)
10. Meal Times – Lunch is traditionally between 12 and 2:00. If you don’t want to eat during this time, that’s ok, but don’t expect to get anything done. Banks and some stores close during lunch hours. If you are hungry between 2 and 6, don’t expect to eat. Restaurants, bakeries, even some groceries stores close during this time. Though they re-open at 6, dinner usually isn’t until 8. And Sundays, most stuff is closed and if it’s opened it has limited hours.
11. Restaurants - it’s often a better deal to order the MENU or a set price menu, with entrée, main dish and dessert, so expect to be sitting there enjoying your meal for a while. Aperitifs are often served before dinner; pastis (licorice flavored liquor mixed with water) and Kir (champagne-like white wine served with a fruity syrup) are popular. Finally, servers don’t get paid based on tips, so the good thing is they don’t harass you. On the other hand, if you want your check, you have to flag down the server because it would be rude for him/her to bring it to you before you asked.
12. Random etiquette – Salad is eaten after meals (though it is okay to eat it first too). It is totally appropriate to put your bread on the table. You eat your fruit with a knife. And I think French people eat really fast, but maybe I eat slow.
13. French Fast Food – consists of Crepes (salted with cheese or sweet with Nutella), sandwiches (tuna and ham are popular), Shwarma (lamb, Middle Eastern sandwich), and Panini. These you can get on the go and during non-traditional meal times. French fries are served with either mustard or mayo.
14. American Food – if you were worried about eating duck liver served with snails, don’t worry. If you visit, you will find some of your American favorites. Downtown there is a McDonald’s (MacDo’s) with the infamous Royale with cheese (pulp fiction, anyone?). Pizza Hut is on my street, and a little bit further down is a Domino’s. There are plenty of KFCs in Paris. And to top it off, there is a Tex Mex restaurant in town, complete with country music, burritos, and margaritas. And it is way popular with French people on their lunch breaks.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Toussaint: Chateaux et fetes
I apologize for not posting a bit earlier. The weeks of October 25 until November 6 marked the vacances de Toussaint, a vacation from school in celebration of All Saint’s Day. I decided to group this post around the things I did in two groups, Chateaux de la Loire and Fetes.
| Toussaint |
Chateaux – Castles
This region is known for its castles, hundreds doting the Loire river valley. If you didn’t know, France has had a lot of kings and queens, who of course had castles, and they themselves had lovers/mistresses that had castles, and dukes and duchesses who also had castles. The original castles were less for living and more for protecting and resemble medieval fortresses. During the Toussaint holiday I visited two chateaux and a few cities outside of Orleans. I hope to soon see at least the most famous chateaux before I leave.
Beaugency – October 19
I went to Beaugency with a few other Americans, Charlotte and Nancy, and a Croatian girl, Mirta. Actually, we had the intention of taking the bus to get to Meung-sur-Loire, a small village with a chateau about 20 minutes outside of Orleans, but since it was Sunday, there were of course no buses running. Instead we headed to the train station, enquired as to a cheap ticket to visit a interesting city, and voila, we wound up in Beaugency. It is a pretty little town on the Loire. Guess who liberated the city in 1429 on her way to Orleans? Crossing the Loire in the direction to Orleans is a 26 arch bridge that has stood since the 15th century. There’s also the Tour de Cesar, which was once part of a chateau, and of course a large cathedral in the center of town. As you can see from the pictures, it is a very nice view of the river. On the 1st of November, I had chance again to visit Beaugency for a birthday party of a friend of a friend. Through my professor I have met a number of French young people and have spent a lot of time with them. This birthday party was held in a meeting hall of Beaugency, where we ate Raclette (kind of like fondue, except you dump melted cheese on top of potatoes, ham, and salad; quite good for a cold evening), drank wine, and danced up a storm to disco music. The best part of the evening was the brief English lesson I gave (French people always want to know how to curse in English…)
Blois – October 26, 2008
Kether, my American friend from Paris, came to visit so of course we had to check out a chateau. The chateau used to be the seat of the dukes of Orleans, but the most interesting aspect is the fact that it is actually 4 different buildings all from different periods in history. It was first a medieval fortress, made up of a meetings hall for the counts of Blois during the 10th century. The next section, a brick and stone wing, was added by Louis XII between 1498 and 1503 and exhibits an architectural style called “flamboyant.” The next section is from the Renaissance period and was built by Francois I. Finally, the last section exhibits Greek classicism styles, was constructed between 1635 and 1638 for Gaston d’Orleans. Most of the architecture was commissioned by Francois I and his wife, Claude de France. This can be seen by the prevalence of salamanders (which look more like fire breathing dragons to me) and minks, the royal symbols of Francois and Claude, respectively. The porcupine represents Louis XII. If you know anything about renaissance royalty in France, you have certainly heard of the all powerful Catherine de Medici. She actually passed away at this chateau in 1589. In the city of Blois, there was a funny museum of magic with huge dragons that sometimes appeared in the windows, and a church with a tribute to Joan of Arc.
Tours – October 29 and 30th
Mirta and I took the 1.5 hour train ride to Tours, the larger city in this region. An island of sorts, the city lies between the Loire river and the Cher river. In the center of town is an enormous cathedral, and was once a famous point for pilgrims attempting to see St. Martin’s tomb. When we arrived in Tours on Wednesday, we immediately took a train to Azay-le-Riddeau, a chateau surrounded by a moat. Upon arrival the chateau was unfortunately closed (during lunchtime), but we soon joined the crowds to enter the grounds. The construction of the chateau began in 1515 by the Treasurer of France. However, he and his croonies were accused of corruption and thus fled the unfinished chateau. Francois I (aforementioned Salamander) gave the chateau to a friend, which was then passed on to an aristocrat during the French revolution. Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures inside of the chateau, but it was filled with art from those periods, salamander adorning fireplaces, statues, even a pool table. We headed back to Tours, dropped our stuff at the hostel, and then went out into the town. Place Plumereau, the old quarter of the city, had cute medieval style houses and buildings. The cool thing about Tours is that the university is right in the center of town, so young people of all types abound. As you can see from the pictures, it rained a lot on Thursday (and snowed!!) so we didn’t get to do much outside of visiting a museum of fine arts and the cathedral.
Fetes – Parties
The week before Toussaint our residence decided to have a festival of foods of the world. Monday night, Nancy and I made pancakes with maple syrup, Tuesday Mirta made a flan-like dish from Croatia, Thursday Leonor from Columbia made a dish of plantains, and Claude from Cote d’Ivoire made some rum drinks for the fete. The Americans ordered pizza that night, then we all headed upstairs to dance up a storm to music from all over the world. It was quite fun. We are still waiting for the French people (by far the largest group) to make something. I think that will be tonight as we celebrate Mirta’s last days in Orleans. The other fetes were more like dinners that I had with some French friends. The first was dinner at Madame Richer’s house with her husband, brother, Sylvan, brother’s friend, Tichou, and his girlfriend, Noemi. Everyone was very nice to me, and I applauded my ability to follow the conversation (though it was tough for me to participate as by the time I thought of a response in coherent French, the topic had passed). It was a truly French evening, first with aperitifs (before dinner drinks) of Kir (champagne-esque – can’t say champagne unless it comes from Champagne - white wine mixed with fruity syrups), followed by dinner of buerre blanc sauce (white butter sauce with shallots), fish, shrimp, and sauerkraut (and white wine). This was followed by a cheese plate and red wine, and then dessert of home-made mousse and coffee. The dinner started at 8:30 and didn’t finish until well after midnight. The following week, Noemi and Tichou invited me out to a friend of theirs’ birthday dinner at a restaurant a little outside of Orleans. The restaurant had live music and the group played songs from the 80s, classic French songs like “Champs d’Elysée,” and random American songs, O happy day, YMCA, and rollin on the river, to name a few. It was funny to hear them attempt to sing in English, getting a lot of the lyrics wrong and with funny accents. Nonetheless, we danced and had a good time, again until late in the night.
In addition to fetes, I have seen three movies in French: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Le Crime est Notre Affaire, an Agatha Christie novel, and Mesrine, a film about a French criminal who broke out of jail in Canada, robbed a few banks and killed a lot of people. I also saw W, the movie about George Bush, and thought it pretty horrible, for the story but also for the weird scenes of the President (one of him chocking on a pretzel, another of him fighting his father in the oval office) and the horrible job of casting the director did. I got a bike for 50 euros, it’s cute and very French, though I would warn against attempting to bike with a baguette in your basket (my baguette fell out, sadly). The 4th and 5th I am headed to Paris to follow the US elections. Should be exciting for sure.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
French Schools and all that Jazz
I began teaching the week of October 6. I am teaching at two schools, one in St Jean de Braye called Collège St Exupéry (St. Ex for short) and Collège Pierre Mendès France in Chécy. I teach only 12 hours a week, 6 hours at each school, but my hours are spread out so I have to pretty much spend most of the day Monday and Tuesday at St. Ex and Thursday and Friday in Chécy. So what is Collège you ask? It is the equivalent to our middle schools (or junior high schools). It serves 6eme, 5eme, 4eme, and 3eme students (6th through 9th grade, 11-15 year olds). I am teaching mostly 3eme classes (14 and 15 year olds), a few 5eme (12-13) and one or two 4eme (13-14). Both of my schools have two types of English classes: the European Section (also called bi-langue, bilingual), which are those students who from 5eme on have decided to take both German and English and spend a lot of their weeks studying these languages (in short, it’s the students who really want to learn the two languages) then you have the other students who are just taking a few hours a week of English. As you can imagine, the ability of these students is quite different. I can have one 5eme European class who can speak as well as if not better than my regular 3eme (who have taken more years of English, presumably). Additionally, I find that the younger students are sometimes more excited about English and are less shy, probably because the teenagers don’t want to embarrass themselves in front of their friends.
The school day is looong. They start at 8 on most days (some of my students don’t start at 8 on Fridays) and go until 5pm. Wednesday being the exception, where students only go for half days; the day is short because it is supposed to be a day of religious teaching in the extremely secular French society (most students do sports and other extracurricular activities during this time). They have two ten minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and 1.5 to 2 hours for lunch. And Lunch (for me, because of my low salary, is only 2 euros) is a classic French affair: salad, meat and vegetable main dish, dessert, fruit, yogurt and of course cheese and baguette. For the teachers there is a bottle of wine on the tables (not kidding) and coffee in the teacher’s lounge during breaks. Teachers accompany the students to class after breaks, where they wait to sit until the teacher tells them to do so (and after they have said “good morning/afternoon Ms.”). The one thing I would say I noticed that differs from American schools is the heavy reliance on written materials. NOTHING is electronic; this means schedules, lunch payment, rosters, even assignments are hand written by the teachers. When trying to find a classroom for me to use, my teacher flipped through this huge notebook of each week where teachers had written which classrooms they would be using. I was thinking, yo a database would be so easy to set-up… Additionally, substitute teachers are rare. If a teacher is sick, they have to get a doctor’s note and the students will either just have a free period or not even show up. Needless to say, it’s not often that teachers miss school.
I must admit, I am very jealous of the language learning that is available to these students in France. My teacher once asked me how many languages middle schoolers in the U.S. were required to take. I felt ashamed telling her that in middle school language is not required, and that only 2 years of a language is required to graduate from high school. Students in France often graduate from high school having taken at least two languages (required in high school), some taking more than that. And I don’t just mean graduating with the ability to pull together a few sentences of English. In France, to finish High School you have to take the Baccalaureate exam (the bac). The exam for English (which is required for almost all types of students) consists of a written exam and a strenuous oral exam where a student is given a piece to read over, then has to summarize and express their opinion of it in grammatically correct English. Even my 3eme classes will have to do a similar exercise at the end of their Collège studies, describing a picture or scene orally and expressing their opinion or feelings about it. Yo, I can’t even do that in French. I wish I had had been forced to study a language in such an intense atmosphere.
So back to my schools. I learned that at St Ex about 60% of the students are low income, whereas Chécy is majority middle class. I can’t say that I can tell the difference between the two schools, but my teacher believes that it affects how the students behave at school. I think all of my students are excited to have a young person from the US breaking the monotony of everyday English classes. Sometimes they are quite funny and of course I have those students one would deem “goodie goodies” or teacher’s pets, and of course those who would rather cut up then pay attention. For the most part, my classes are fairly small ranging from 7 to 15, though I do have two enormous classes of 22 (which I suppose isn’t bad, except I AM supposed to just be an assistant…). What does my job entail, you ask? Well my sole purpose is to be an ambassador of my country and to motivate the students to speak English. When I asked about lesson plans, my teacher just said make them speak English. Easier said than done. Often they try to speak to me in French, and though I understand them and it’s tough, I pretend like I can’t and tell them to please say it in English. We as assistants are not supposed to talk to the students in French at all. I told all of my students I don’t speak French but I am pretty sure they know I am lying because I speak to the other teachers in French in front of them. Nevertheless, they do have a good grasp of the language. One lesson I have done with two of my 3eme classes was about the US elections. These students have kept abreast of US politics probably better than many American citizens. And as you can imagine, they have all selected a favored candidate. For the lesson, I first asked them about policies in France (for example, Me: if you are sick here, what do you do? Students: go to the hospital. Me: and how much does that cost? Students: it cost 22 euro but then you are reimbursed. Me: so in the end it’s free? In the US, you have to pay for insurance and if you can’t afford it, you might have to pay a lot for healthcare. Student: what if you can’t pay $5000 for a surgery? Me: sometimes you have to sell your house… Student: well that’s not fair…) Of course that is a bit of an oversimplified explanation (the student s knew that in some ways they already paid for the healthcare through mandatory high taxes) but they understood that it could be hard on some Americans if they didn’t have insurance. Gun control (or the lack thereof) was another thing that really surprised them. But the thing that really got their gander was the Electoral College system. I assigned them each a state and had them look up how many votes their state got. They of course were perplexed as to why some states, say California, were more important to win than Alaska. One student even said “isn’t someone in Alaska the same as someone in California?” It was hard for me to defend a system I personally don’t agree with, so I didn’t (haha) I just explained that most of the time the winner of the 270 Electoral College votes wins the popular vote, with the 2000 election being an exception. They weren’t bought by this argument. Even though they were operating in their second language, I am certain they understood the issues. Each student was given an identity and had to decide based on this who they would vote for. For example, one student was an American who supported the war in Iraq because they thought it was the best way to fight terrorism (the student said they would vote for McCain). Another was a person with cancer but no health insurance. She said she would vote for Obama so she wouldn’t die. I hope I didn’t give them any biases that they didn’t already have. One interesting thing I noticed though, everyone knew who Sarah Palin was (and expressed their dislike of her, one student said she was a witch, not sure where he got that from), but not a soul in the class knew Joe Biden. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
My final thoughts are about the English language itself. The students learn British English and I never really realized the fine differences that exist between American and British English. I mean I knew chips are called French fries (which by the way is extremely difficult to explain to French students… because not only do you have to tell them we have a different name for them, but you have to tell them why they are named after their country, which I don’t know), but things like “have you got any brothers” and “I like swimming” instead of “do you have any brothers” and “I like to swim.” Colour versus Color, Centre versus center, better pronounced “bet-ter” versus “bedder” etc. Plus, I have decided that you can say pretty much anything in English. The teacher will ask me, do you say this in English? And I think, well sure, you can say that, it makes sense. Here’s an example: “It’s raining today, but I’ve got my umbrella.” The teacher said this was incorrect because “but” is used to connect two opposite ideas. But then I thought to myself, well you could say that, if you put emphasis on I’ve (implying something like “well AT LEAST I’ve got my umbrella”). So when she asked me, I didn’t know what to say. I am surely not an expert on English (apparently, “I like to swim” is counted as incorrect on the students’ tests….). Well, whatever, we don’t talk like British people, so I just have to let the students know some of the main differences between the two types of English.
Next week we’ll talk about Halloween in the US. And the week after that is our first vacation, Toussaint (all saints day). A week of no classes will be nice. This was a lengthy post, but just wanted to let you know what’s going on here!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Orléans... photos
 |
| From Orleans |
Over the last few days I have been exploring the city of Orléans, visited the rue de Bourgogne which is jammed packed with restaurants and bars from all over the world, and even visited a cute park. For most of the days I have been here, however, it’s been cold and rainy. Ugh.
Saturday, it was actually quite pleasant, and I strolled along the river to a marché (market) where you could purchase anything from apples to goat cheese to live rabbits (for eating of course) to sausage. I just bought some huge, locally grown apples before heading to the Mediatheque, library, to use the wifi. It’s a bit unfortunate; it appears that all the IUFM students leave for the weekend, meaning no internet or people to hang out with. Perhaps I will use this time to travel.
Zut, Je dois parler Français…
Translation: Crap, I have to speak French
Paris was my vacation from reality… that I was living in France and surrounded by French people toujours (all the time). It all began when I got on the train to head to Orléans… instead of asking someone, I just got off the train when it stopped, because I thought that it was only making two stops (Orléans and Blois, which is a bit farther). Boy was I wrong. Apparently there are two train stations near Orléans, and I of course got off the wrong one. Cursing myself, I got on the tram and went to the right station, where my ride, Madame Richer, was waiting. Madame Richer, my contact at College Pierre Mendes in Chécy, spoke to me in French only, though she is an English teacher. We get to the IUFM (teacher training institute), where my room awaited me, to find that the key doesn’t work. Instead we went to Madame Richer’s house in Chécy, where she kindly let me spend the night. I had a jolly (read awkward) time trying to converse with her husband who doesn’t speak English, I think a lot of his jokes went un-noticed by me, sadly. I got up the next day to catch the bus to St Jean de Braye and visit my other school, College St Exupery. Here I met a whole bunch of people, all who spoke French and said a whole lot to me assuming that I understood (and they probably thought I did, considering the fact that I nodded and responded in the affirmative). Madame Hernandez, my contact at this school, did speak to me in English, because we were discussing scheduling and I think it was important I understood. It appears that I will be spending Monday and Tuesdays at St Exupery, maybe Wednesdays, and Thursday and Fridays at Pierre Mendes. St Exupery has this weird schedule where classes are different depending on whether it is week A or B. So much for being a language assistant, it appears that I will actually be teaching the majority of the classes, with as little as 10 students and as many as 22. Madame Hernandez says that the 3eme (older students) are very interested in English/America and are good at English. The 5eme students are not as good, but still nice (though some may be shy). We’ll see how that goes. One of the English teachers is teaching about the elections in the US, so we decided we should sit down and swap ideas. Everyone I met was very very nice and friendly, even your classic school librarian.
After that, I finally made it to the IUFM and my room, merci to Madame Richer for the ride. My room is petite, but it’s just right for me. I realized I couldn’t unpack without hangers, so I headed out to explore the city of Orléans. Although it was cold and threatening rain, Orléans was a pretty nice looking city. I stopped at the tourism office for a map, checked out this huge cathedral and of course found the statue of Joan of Arc that is in the center of town. Tons of restaurants, cafes, cute boutiques, and other shops line the cobble stone streets. I found the 2 euro store and stocked up. I still need some things though, like a trash can. I found a small grocery store near the IUFM, but I made a complete fool of myself because I didn’t understand what the woman was asking me (but she was real nice about it and wished me luck with the middle schoolers). I additionally made a fool of myself when I walked into the SFR (cell phone company) store because I couldn’t get my phone to turn on. I hand it to the guy, who with such dexterity, held down the button and Voila it turned on. Wow did I look stupid.
Next week is the start of classes... eek. Hopefully all goes well!
Paris was my vacation from reality… that I was living in France and surrounded by French people toujours (all the time). It all began when I got on the train to head to Orléans… instead of asking someone, I just got off the train when it stopped, because I thought that it was only making two stops (Orléans and Blois, which is a bit farther). Boy was I wrong. Apparently there are two train stations near Orléans, and I of course got off the wrong one. Cursing myself, I got on the tram and went to the right station, where my ride, Madame Richer, was waiting. Madame Richer, my contact at College Pierre Mendes in Chécy, spoke to me in French only, though she is an English teacher. We get to the IUFM (teacher training institute), where my room awaited me, to find that the key doesn’t work. Instead we went to Madame Richer’s house in Chécy, where she kindly let me spend the night. I had a jolly (read awkward) time trying to converse with her husband who doesn’t speak English, I think a lot of his jokes went un-noticed by me, sadly. I got up the next day to catch the bus to St Jean de Braye and visit my other school, College St Exupery. Here I met a whole bunch of people, all who spoke French and said a whole lot to me assuming that I understood (and they probably thought I did, considering the fact that I nodded and responded in the affirmative). Madame Hernandez, my contact at this school, did speak to me in English, because we were discussing scheduling and I think it was important I understood. It appears that I will be spending Monday and Tuesdays at St Exupery, maybe Wednesdays, and Thursday and Fridays at Pierre Mendes. St Exupery has this weird schedule where classes are different depending on whether it is week A or B. So much for being a language assistant, it appears that I will actually be teaching the majority of the classes, with as little as 10 students and as many as 22. Madame Hernandez says that the 3eme (older students) are very interested in English/America and are good at English. The 5eme students are not as good, but still nice (though some may be shy). We’ll see how that goes. One of the English teachers is teaching about the elections in the US, so we decided we should sit down and swap ideas. Everyone I met was very very nice and friendly, even your classic school librarian.
After that, I finally made it to the IUFM and my room, merci to Madame Richer for the ride. My room is petite, but it’s just right for me. I realized I couldn’t unpack without hangers, so I headed out to explore the city of Orléans. Although it was cold and threatening rain, Orléans was a pretty nice looking city. I stopped at the tourism office for a map, checked out this huge cathedral and of course found the statue of Joan of Arc that is in the center of town. Tons of restaurants, cafes, cute boutiques, and other shops line the cobble stone streets. I found the 2 euro store and stocked up. I still need some things though, like a trash can. I found a small grocery store near the IUFM, but I made a complete fool of myself because I didn’t understand what the woman was asking me (but she was real nice about it and wished me luck with the middle schoolers). I additionally made a fool of myself when I walked into the SFR (cell phone company) store because I couldn’t get my phone to turn on. I hand it to the guy, who with such dexterity, held down the button and Voila it turned on. Wow did I look stupid.
Next week is the start of classes... eek. Hopefully all goes well!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Le grand tour de Paris
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| Justine's Séjour in France |
Alas, after months of anticipation, I arrived in Paris on Thursday September 25. And I surely hit the ground running. Vincent, a French friend of mine from Elon, met me at the airport (I have entirely too much luggage). We then took the RER B to the suburbs of Paris, where my friend Kether (whom I know from Senegal) is currently studying (at a school called ENS Cachan). After a much needed shower, Ellen, a friend of Kether’s who was also staying with her for the week, and I took the metro into Paris to meet Kether for dinner. And that is when it hit me, whoa I am really in France! Ellen and I went to Place d’Italie and strolled around (code for got lost) and saw many cafes, “discovered” a hidden garden with wombats (aka le jardin du plantes), but no berets. We finally managed to get back to the meeting point and stroll around the Latin Quarter before heading back for the night.
Friday we headed to la Fontaine St Michel and strolled down avenue St Germaine, which is very touristy and full of cafes and bookshops. Oh yeah, and is right near Notre Dame. We of course sat down to café (coffee) and enjoyed people watching. As Paris is the most traveled to city in the world, you can believe that there were plenty of foreigners and lots of people speaking English. So in that respect, it was good to stop in Paris before heading to Orleans, because it was like slowly getting into the habit of speaking French. Next we headed towards the Rodin Museum (Rodin, most famous for his “thinking man” statue), along the river Seine, so I at least saw the Louvre from a distance. We then strolled around the area called the Marais, and then took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. We ended the day near the Bastille, meeting some friends for drinks. Saturday, we had a classic French picnic (baguette, cheese, salami, and fruit) in a park near the Cite Universitaire. We then stood in line for a long time to reach the Paris Catacombs. I had been in Catacombs before, but these were particularly creepy. First, a priest back in the day had “reorganized” the bones into decorative patterns, such as hearts, crosses, and other shapes with skulls and femurs as the centerpieces. 6 million people are in the catacombs, but you wouldn’t know that because it’s nothing but stacks upon stacks of bones. And it’s deep down, below both the metro and the sewers of Paris. Plus it was dark, and every now and then, some philosopher had written some words of wisdom on the walls (things like, “When you wake in the morning, know that you might not live through the day; when you go to bed at night, know that you might not live through the night”). And then there would be a random altar where a priest back in the day gave mass. What’s extra crazy is the fact that the people’s whose bones form the shape of a star, their families can’t even visit their whole bodies.
I was grateful to get out of there and what do I hear? None other than a small brass/wind/drum band loudly playing MJ’s thriller to a crowd of excited onlookers. There was an art showcase going on in Montparnasse and the band was quite good. On the street I bought two books for 1.5 euros from a Senegalese man before we headed to (drum roll please) the Eiffel tower. Oh yeah, it’s pretty awesome up close. It was really pretty at night too; lit up in blue with a circle of yellow stars (France is this year’s president of the EU). Of course we took the elevator up to the second floor and had a lovely view of Paris. Sunday, after sleeping in a bit, we went to this huge flea market in the north part of the city, and I felt like I was straight up again in Senegal. You could buy anything in this market, from cute boots to antique post cards to crepes to African masks. It was a bit overwhelming, but it brought me back to ole Marche Sandaga in Dakar. After that we went to Sacre Coeur/Montmartre, which also offers a gorgeous view of the city from high above. Below this old church is probably the most tourist part of Paris I saw. Moulin Rouge, le Chat Noir, and a million sex shops were frequented by huge tourist buses. That night we went back to St Michel (near Notre Dame) and checked out an English book store that is pretty famous for housing writers, Shakespeare and Company. Apparently, authors such as James Joyce and Hemingway spent their time there. Monday, to thank Kether for her hospitality, Ellen and I stopped at one of the many floral shops and bought her two potted plants. We then headed back to Montmartre to the Salvador Dali Museum. Dali is probably best known for his surrealist paintings of melting clocks, but this museum was also full of his statues, paintings depicting Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland, and biblical stories. And, for only 900 euros, you can have a lithograph of a Dali print. We searched high and low for a Senegalese/African restaurant, settled for Turkish, and then headed back to Cachan to get my luggage so I could catch the train to Orleans. BUT, Kether and I arrived at her place sans the key (Ellen had it and we both forgot to ask her for it). So, I missed my train, but it ended up being a good thing, because I caught the next one and saved 8 euros. I never really slowed down in Paris, and I didn’t want to. There was so much to see, and I didn’t even see it all! Having only spent 4 days in Paris, I of course know very little about living in the city, but I can offer my first impressions.
1. The metro system is intense. I don’t even know how many lines, but there are various colors, plus there are the trains that are “suburban” which bisect the city, and there are 4 zones that define how much a ticket costs. The good thing is, the price of the ticket is not determined by how far you travel as long as you stay in one zone. So you could essentially spend all your time in the metro for only 1.40 euros (and believe me, there is plenty to see down there!); photo booths, restaurants, shops, advertisements for everything under the sun, performers (we had two boys break it down while doing acrobatics on the metro). The system is not hard to navigate, maps are everywhere, but it is a bit of a maze for sure. And I can’t imagine what it must be like when there is a strike…
2. People aren’t that rude. I found that lots of waiters liked to speak English, as did random other people on the street, and I got lots of funny compliments from strangers (some old drunk man came up to me and told Ellen that I was “mignone” (cute).) I bought a sim card for my cell phone and I didn’t find the people there un-friendly at all. I think it’s important to follow cultural procedure: walk into a shop/restaurant, greet the employee and when you leave, say goodbye and thank you. Lots of stuff is in English, and there are a lot of workers who speak English too, so if you want to visit, you have no worries… 3. French people are confused about the weather. I understand that the beautiful weather we had was a bit of a fluke for September, but people in Paris really didn’t know whether it was cold or not. I mean people bundled up in huge winter coats and scarves walked alongside someone in shorts or a t-shirt (granted, it was in the 60s, and I quickly caught on to the scarf wearing, in fact I even purchased two more pashmina-esque scarves). Nonetheless, I never saw a beret or stripped sailor shirt, sadly. I did see two men playing accordions though, which I think is pretty French. That’s Paris for now, I am sure I will be visiting again though!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Location, Location, Location
I received my post on the 4th of July after much anticipation. I will be in the suburbs of the city of Orléans (the two suburbs are St-Jean-de-Braye and Chécy). I will be teaching middle schoolers at le collège Saint-Exupery and le Collège Pierre Mendès France.
In 6th grade I did a project on Joan of Arc, and find it remarkable that I am somehow coming full circle. What's the connection? Joan of Arc liberated the city of
Justine blogs again
The purpose of this blog is to document my time spent in France teaching English to middle schoolers (my "séjour" or "sojourn"). It will surely include travels throughout Europe, my trials and tribulations being a teacher in a country whose first language is not my own, my perceptions of French culture, and my general sentiments of living abroad again. This will be quite the experience... it is the longest time I will live in a country outside of the U.S. and it will be a completely different experience from the two semesters I spent in West Africa. First, I am working, not studying (therefore, getting paid, but also living on my own, paying for rent). Second, I had the luxury of some sort of program as support while I was studying abroad, whereas in France I am fending for myself (with a little assistance from my schools), setting up a bank account, finding my way around town, meeting people, going to the doctor, etc. Third, I won't be enrolled in language classes and will be 100% immersed in the French language (with the exception of the 12 hours of English I am required to teach). Needless to say, I am both extremely excited but a bit nervous about the whole she-bang.
You may ask, why France? Well, my primary goal to achieve while there is to substantially improve my French skills. I hope in the future to work in/live in Francophone Africa and feel that I would not be very productive without some level of competency in the national language of 31 countries in Africa. Supposedly the region of France where I am going (Le Centre) is known for their mastery of the language.... so hopefully some of that will rub off on me.
So, why not France? I have recently developed an interest in French history (particularly in relation to colonialism... think assimilation, Haiti, Senegal, etc.) and have been following French politics since Sarkozy won (I just think the news surrounding him is so funny). And there is such a romanticized view of the French from this side of the ocean (or we hate them for being cowards and not supporting us in the war in Iraq... "remember, they would be speaking German if it weren't for us...") and a general intrigue of the French culture that I will be experiencing first hand.
You may ask, why France? Well, my primary goal to achieve while there is to substantially improve my French skills. I hope in the future to work in/live in Francophone Africa and feel that I would not be very productive without some level of competency in the national language of 31 countries in Africa. Supposedly the region of France where I am going (Le Centre) is known for their mastery of the language.... so hopefully some of that will rub off on me.
So, why not France? I have recently developed an interest in French history (particularly in relation to colonialism... think assimilation, Haiti, Senegal, etc.) and have been following French politics since Sarkozy won (I just think the news surrounding him is so funny). And there is such a romanticized view of the French from this side of the ocean (or we hate them for being cowards and not supporting us in the war in Iraq... "remember, they would be speaking German if it weren't for us...") and a general intrigue of the French culture that I will be experiencing first hand.
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