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!