So I left Nantes and went to the city where I live Sablé-Sur-Sarthe, or as we locals like to call it, Sablé. The “Sur-Sarthe” part just means that it is on the Sarthe river. So there are a whole bunch of little cities called “something-Sur-Sarthe.” Sablé is a tiny little town of 12,000 people. There is nothing to do in Sablé, but it does have a train station, making traveling quite a breeze.
So I got to Sablé and the teacher who I have been in contact with met me at the gare (train station) and took me to the school and to my apartment, which is in the school. She dropped me off, gave me some info about the following day and let me be to get settled. I was the first person (out of two people, woohoo) to arrive at our apartment. This was awesome because it gave the ability to go through all the rooms, figure out which one was the best, and take that one. It also gave me the luxury of setting up the living room just the way I like it. And as my past roommates know, I’m kind of anal and like to set things up. Haha. And all the furniture was in the living room, so I had to move it to the appropriate rooms and places. So that pretty much took up the rest of the day. The next day I met a bizillion different teachers and the Proviseur (principal), and two ad-joint proviseurs (vice principals) of the lycee (high school).
SIDE NOTE: YOU ALL ARE GOING TO BE FLUENT IN FRENCH BY THE TIME I COME BACK! Solely because of all the French words I plan to include in this blog! END SIDE NOTE.
I also went to the bank, and did a bunch of random crap like that. The next day my roommate, Gerardo (whose name kicks my butt to pronounce), arrived. It was super nice because his contact person took us both to have dinner in her house. We didn’t start eating until after 10pm! It was pretty crazy. But it was really nice of her because she baked us a cake that said “Bienvenue en France!” which means "welcome to france!" And it was nice because we spent the whole night speaking in French. I spent the rest of that weekend just kind of hanging out and getting settled. I discovered that the Internet we were using was really crappy and had facebook blocked! I, thank god, eventually figured out a way to hack it and use facebook. But it was still a huge pain in my rear end, and skype didn’t work for crap.
The next week I felt like I was rushing for a stinkin’ sorority or something. I had to go to all my classes and introduce myself, and allow the students to ask me questions. There’s no feeling of being judged like that of being in a completely different country in front of a bunch of eleves (students), who are scrutinizing your every move! But it really wasn’t that bad; it was actually really interesting! I was able to immediately see the differences between the preparation and organization of the teachers, and the motivation and behavior of the students. Some teachers didn’t have anything prepared at all, so I just introduced myself to the students and they then asked me questions. While other teachers had had their students prepare questions to ask me ahead of time. So basically, it all summed up to me telling the same old boring crap about myself about 15 different times, to many students who didn’t seem to care at all. But it was still kinda fun. I’m weird.
I also ordered new internet that week. That was a hoot and a half. I ordered it over the phone, and made sure the man spoke slow enough so I could understand everything he told me. I didn’t want to end up getting some crazy premium package or something like that. It’s actually incredibly cheap here, in comparison to what we’ve been paying in Madison for the past 3 years. It’s only 30 euros a month (45ish dollars) for intenet, tv, and a phone land line! Craziness! But that’s enough about that.
Then on Thursday I had to go to Nantes for a “training” meeting with all the other assistants. Talk about a waste of a day. It was completely useless and unnecessary. Once that was over I met up with Valentin, since he lives in Nantes and said I could stay at his place for the weekend. It was really nice to see him, since I had been over 3.5 years since last time I have seen him. I spent Thursday through Sunday with him and his friends and had a really good time! We went out, slept, and went out again! And then Saturday night we went to a French movie. I was so proud of myself because it was a comedy and I honestly felt like I understood all of the movie and the jokes! Yay for understanding! It was actually really interesting going out to the bars with him and his friends. We went to this little college-like bar and there were a whole bunch, at least 20, of students from his school there. They were all singing songs, I’m pretty sure they were about their school, and about france in general (but I’m not positive, since I couldn’t understand a bunch of what they were saying). And they were singing at the top of their lungs for like 20 minutes. It was pretty entertaining and funny, but the entire time I was thinking that there is NO WAY that could happen in a college bar in the US. You would instantly get yelled at for causing a disturbance, or get kicked out of the bar. It was also an eventful night because we had a little incident on our walk home at about 4:45 in the morning. We had a run-in with two guys who were on a moped, who started yelling at Valentin. I wasn’t worried until one of them went back to the moped and brought a screwdriver back with him. He held that thing like he was not at all afraid to use it. I think the point when I started crying is when he kind of calmed down a bit, and we eventually skulked away. BIENVENUE EN FRANCE! It was pretty scary, but we survived. Now looking back on it, it’s a pretty good story actually…
After my weekend in Nantes I returned to Sablé for my first week of teaching. The teaching is going really well and I’m enjoying it a lot! I don’t have much to prepare since my teachers either have it really well outlined for me, or don’t tell me what we’re doing until I arrive in class the day of. So while I don’t have a lot of outside work to do, I definitely have to think quickly on my feet a lot. I work with 10 different English teachers and have about 13 different classes, so I have a whole ton of students to remember! In general, I have students aged 15-22. However, most of my students are 20-21. I think this is nice because they are the same age as me. And I can talk to them in English and they understand reasonably well what I’m saying. However, I still do get a whole bunch of blank stares. Those are super fun to deal with. Especially, when I ask the question “do you understand?” When I get no response to that question is when I’m really worried.
I do a whole bunch of different kinds of things with my students. Including (yes, I’m going to just list them since I’m lazy): acting as a discussion partner, training them to orally present a document or image, having them act out plays, correcting their work, interviewing them, and teaching them about Amuuuuuuuurica. Oh, and I forgot, teaching them American English, instead of that British crap they keep learning (hahaha, jk jk jk). But I only work 12 hours a week, so I have a LOT of free time. This is partially good because I have 9 different tv shows I need to keep up with! Hahahahah. But I think I’m going to ask for some more hours or something, so I stay busier.
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| These are two cartoons I have been using when working with my students |
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| The students have 10 minutes to prepare an oral presentation of the cartoon, and then they present it to me. I also give them a copy of my analysis of the cartoon. |
Then I spent last weekend in Angers (a bigger city 20 minutes from Sablé by train) with my roommate. We stayed with another Spanish assistant that he knew. It was really nice weekend. We walked around and saw the castle and cathedral. I bought a 40 euro watch for only 10 euros. Best. Sale. Ever. And this watch screams Emily. It has rhinestones around the edge!!!!!!!!!!! But don’t worry; it’s classy. Hahahaha
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| The castle of Angers (pronounced sort of like "on-jay") |
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| Castle gardens |
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| The city center |
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| KEBAB!!!! |
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| My roommate (Gerardo), Karen (a Spanish assistant in Angers) and myself in the city center |
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| Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d'Angers |
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| Bridge over the Maine River in Angers |
SIDE NOTE NUMBER TWO: IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO HAVE A WATCH IF YOU WORK IN A FRENCH SCHOOL! In French schools it is against the law for students to bring out their cell phones, and teachers aren’t supposed to bring them out either. Also, there are no clocks in any of the rooms. So therefore, in order for me to have any idea of how much time is left in class, I NEEDED this watch! END SIDE NOT TWO. (I know. I’m strange)
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| My beautiful watch! |
Then we also head out to the bars and a dance club in the basement of a boat. It was fun, but the DJ was really weird. He played a couple American pop songs, some Spanish music, and some oldies. It was a very strange assortment of music! I also met a bunch of other assistants who are all teaching in Angers, and who were all very nice!
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| Doing a shot called "Dans ta gueule" (which means "in your mouth") - the bartender literally lights the shot in your mouth on fire |
After the weekend in Angers, we returned to Sablé for our second week of teaching. I had even more groups of students by myself this week. I definitely have some sassy students who may be difficult, but for the most par they are much more respectful when they are with me than when they are with their teachers, thankfully! All the students are also very curious of my ability to speak French. I like to keep them guessing so I don’t really tell them. I just say that yes I can speak French. Then they are shocked when they say something that they shouldn’t be saying and I understand them. It’s fun for me! Haha
This week I also went with one of the English teachers to pick up my internet box. This box, for some stupid reason, couldn’t be sent to Sablé, but I had to go pick it up in the nearest city (which is actually smaller than Sablé). Who knows, France is crazy! So now I have awesome internet and can actually skype with people! It’s pretty amazing!
Other good news from this week. If you haven’t already heard, I GOT AN INTERVIEW WITH UW-MADISON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE!!!!!! I’m so root-tootin’ excited! This is only the second school I have heard back from (BU didn’t offer me an interview. I am not surprised. because I didn’t even really meet their qualifications for the number of English classes I needed to have taken). So I am still waiting to hear back from 12 more schools, and hopefully, I will get at least 1 or 2 more interviews. However, this means that I will be coming back to the US around December 6th (I’m thinking the weekend before that until the 7th).
So I ended the week with that good news, and since I don’t ever have class on Fridays, my vacation began on Thursday night! Yes, vacation already! All you punks in America can be jealous! The French pretty much get vacation every six weeks. I am currently on vacay until the 2nd of November. So to start it off on the right foot, I went to Nantes yesterday. Myself and three other assistants went to a BRUNO MARS CONCERT!!!!!! Yes! It was ridiculously awesome! I am now currently obsessed with this song! AND I'm also completely in love with this song which, by the way, will be the new single in the NEXT TWILIGHT MOVIE!!!! AHHHHHH!! (and that youtube clip was one that someone took from the exact concert that I was at! woah man!) So, as a result of all this concert excitement, I decided that some serious research needs to be done! If it’s not done by me, some else needs to study what neurotransmitters are released and what those dang neurons are doing when you go to a concert. I don’t know what it is about concerts, but every. single. fricken. time I go to a concert I leave completely enamored with the artist! I want to know what the heck is going on in our brains that makes us want to drop every thing and marry that dang performer! Someone get on this research. (Joe, you go to Harvard-they’ve got resources-make someone look into this!) After the concert, another assistant, Nicole graciously allowed me to crash at her place.
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| AT THE BRUNO MARS CONCERT!!! |
Then today we got up, ate some kebabs, and I got on the train to head to Germany to see KATHI!!!! I’m currently sitting on my train from Paris to Koeln Germany. Somehow, when I booked this ticket it gave me a 1st class seat on this train. IT IS FRICKEN SWEET! There is a free meal (which I didn’t know about so I had already eaten a sandwich- Vickie Biel, and Deirdre O’Sullivan would have LOVED my sandwich! It was mozzarella and tomatoes! Yes, I CHOSE a sandwich with tomatoes, pigs must be flying. But I’m not too upset since the meal didn’t look too tasty in my opinion). Besides the free meal, there is free internet, and I got a little 187 ml bottle of red wine! WOO for first class trains! Also, a comment about Europe. I love how dang multilingual everything is. They definitely made all of the announcements in 4 different languages – French, Dutch, German, and English. It’s so fun! And all the workers handing out food were speaking all 4 too! That’s awesome! This should happen in America! Seriously, I was impressed!
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| Me working away on this blog post, with my free bottle of wine at the ready! |
Wellllllll, that’s all for now! I’m looking forward to my German vacation with Kathi. I plan to add pictures to this shortly, but I don’t have my camera on me right now. I’ll update again soon… well, maybe.
