November 14, 2009 by missfranceypants

No heat or hot water a la maison blanche

We woke up this morning to no heat or hot water at our little house. Perfect. Since the school owns our house we have to talk to them, and of course no one is there on the weekend. I’m all in favor of calling a repair man and paying for it ourselves. I can’t live like this! (Okay, so its only been a few hours but its going to make for a long weekend!) I knew I should’ve traveled somewhere this weekend.

My classes have been going well, although I had one girl in an English class ask “Why are you here?”. My terminale classes (the oldest kids) are my fav. They can actually speak in sentences and discuss current events. Which is a ton better than “I have got one brother” or “I have already visited London”. My young students generally just stare at me (which I suppose is better than throwing things), but usually there’s one smart kid who explains things to all the others. Oh, and I think I’ve won most of them over with candy. They love Tootsie Rolls!

My presentation this Friday was on Barack Obama (whom they all love) and it went really well. My terminales even knew his position on major issues! I can’t say I could do the same with Sarkozy. Next Friday’s subject: Thanksgiving!

Thursday nights the gym teachers at Fenelon teach aerobics for the teachers and we’ve been going. Its actually quite fun and entertaining to see all the teachers I work with try to do the moves. I really want to find a ballet class.

October 20, 2009 by missfranceypants

Homesick

I didn’t really do much this weekend, which was the plan since I’ve been spending a lot of money lately and we don’t get paid until the end of the month. I tried to write my Statement of Purpose for Grad School on Sunday and just ended up frustrated. What am I going to do with my life? I’m honestly afraid I won’t get into any of my schools (its actually a very good possibility), and I don’t have any sort of back up plan. Was it really a good idea to come here and do this? Should I have just stayed at the big C? I’m still planning on visiting the office in Paris while I’m here. Maybe they’ll really need someone and James and I can still have the life we dreamed in Paris. Or at least I’d be closer to him in Morocco.

I started teaching on Friday. Really all I did was a presentation on Missouri (for three different classes) and listen to students explain a document. Thats a favorite for teachers here. Give students a document, it could be a news article, excerpt from a famous speech, or a cartoon/drawing, make the student analyze it and explain it in English. Its odd because the student isn’t really engaging in discussion, just regurgitating whatever the teacher has told them to say. I guess its better than not speaking at all. When I asked one of the teachers what I should do with her class she said “you could bring in a document…”

I do a presentation on American culture every Friday, this week’s is on Halloween! Not sure how I’m going to make it last an hour, so if you have ideas, let me know! I think I won them over last week with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Tootsie Rolls I brought in. I need something fun this week too!

Sncf (France’s train company) is striking this week. My first strike, how exciting!!! To strike in France they have to get a permit, so its really never a surprise but an inconvenience nonetheless. I think the North is only participating today, so we’re trapped in Cambrai. Hopefully things are back to normal tomorrow so we can go shopping in Lille!

Things I don’t like about France (so far):
*no dryers=crispy clothes
*stores are closed part of Saturday, all of Sunday, and part of Monday
*the milk is weird
*dog poop on all the sidewalks
*opening a bank account takes forever (can I have my pin PLEASE?!)

James’ dog, Rascal, died yesterday. He was the sweetest dog ever with big floppy ears and never tried to eat my socks. We miss you, Rascal!

October 4, 2009 by missfranceypants

Feeling Better

I think I’m almost over my cold! Yay!! I somehow made it through all my classes on Friday, and I think they’re going to be good as well. Two of them are European History classes taught in English so all I’ll do is listen to them give a summary of an article and grade their English. No lesson plans again! The other classes I had were for Economics (taught in English) and for these classes I’ll prepare a presentation on topics they suggest. I think my first one will just be on Kansas City and Missouri (we’ll see how interesting I can make it!).

The other assistants in Cambrai came over to our place on Friday night, they’re all really cool and its so nice to be able to speak in English! Especially since I’m sick and trying to explain myself in French is utterly exhausting. Yesterday I went to Lille with two of my roommates. Lille was nice (and has lots of shopping!) but it was such a deary, cold day all I really wanted to do was go back to bed. With all our discounts a round trip ticket to Lille is only 10 euros, so I’m sure I’ll go often. Here are a few pictures I took.