Flashback

Remember my troubles on the tram the first day I rode? My 20 euro fine? The tears? The confusion? The frustration? WELL, my friend Julicia summed up the experience just perfectly in her blog, so I thought (with her permission, of course) I'd share the exerpt with you all:

"In America, when you don’t pay the bus fare and you try to sneak in the side door, the bus driver yells at you. In France, they have the controllers. Suited men with hard faces and empty eyes, who ascend upon a bus or tram from random stops, and freeze the population within the bus. No one can get off, no one can get on. For 5, 10, 15 minutes, everyone is immobile. The controllers walk up and down every aisle, checking bus tickets, making sure passes aren’t expired, scrutinizing tram tickets. If you were an obedient citizen, the most you will feel is the chill when the controller grabs your card from your hand and intensely reads the timestamp. If not, you are humiliated in front of everyone for not having paid the 1€40 fare, led off the bus, and written up for a 25€ fine…or more, depending on the transgression. "

Thanks, Julicia!

My name is Eggs.

And so ends the first two weeks of my teaching post. It is officially "Toussaint" vacation. That's right, folks, an entire week and a half of paid vacation all in the name of All Saints Day, or as I like to think of it, Halloween vacation. My goal this week was that my 20 minute Halloween lessons on colors and numbers with a few ghosts and witches thrown in would warm the hearts of my 6-10 year olds in a Tim Burton-esque way. Unfortunately for all, 2o minutes just isn't enough time to review past material, learn about a holiday, learn 5 new colors, color-by-number, AND watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" five or six times. Bummer. I did wear my 3D ghost earrings, however, which were a big hit. (He's wearing an orange and white striped t-shirt. I love it.)

So, what's Meg doing for her first big holiday in France, you might be asking yourself? Meg's asking herself the same thing. Well, with 163 euros in the bank, I've got two options: 1.Explore the Eastern half of the city or 2.Explore the Western half of the city (which I'm pretty convinced is just apartments). Luckily, I will be meeting Stevy (a friend from Tours, which probably half the people who read this know) in Paris on Halloween and then welcoming my parents into the city the next day! Mom, Tom, and I will be exploring Paris for the last three days of my break, before we will head back to Orleans (I go back to work on Thursday, but only for one day, before it's another three-day weekend...as always!). Unfortunately, they have to head back to London on Saturday afternoon in order to catch their plane back to the states the next morning.

As you may have heard, France has been all about the "grève" these past few weeks, as the government has been in the process of deciding whether or not to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the pension age to 67. This stike has been affecting transportation above all else. Last Thursday, for example, I failed to make it to my first class of the year due to the highschoolers blocking the tramway in the city center. (The tram in Orleans runs right through the main Plaza, which is where large groups congregate for...well, large group events. This is a problem.) Not only has forms of public transportation like the tram systems and the TGV been affected, but the gas stations have actually been running out of gas due to blocked fuel tanks, leaving hundreds of drivers stranded at the pump. The strikers (particularly the high schoolers...don't even get me started!) have become quite violent in some major French cities. Luckily for us here in Orleans, the protests, though inconvenient, have been pretty peaceful. But perhaps I should knock on wood, as the committee set to make this "major" decision has had to postpone the result (the final decision was supposed to be made yesterday). With the Toussaint holiday starting tomorrow, we can all only hope that the strike goes on a week and a half-long pause (unlikely), so that everyone can enjoy their travel plans "grève"-free.

Now, to wrap up today's post, here a few mini-anecdotes from the past 2 weeks:

Anecdote Number 1:
>You may be wondering about the title of this particular post. Allow me to fill you in. Lesson number one with my CP students (again, the 6 and 7 year olds) was "hello, what's your name? My name is____." Seems simple enough, right? I talk to a puppet, we sing a "hello" song, and then we practice. Easy peesy, right? Um...
So week number two we review. Enjoy the following peak at one of my classes review week one's material:

Me: (French)What did we learn last time I was here? Does anyone remember?
*a few hands go up, I call on one*
Student: (French) A song!
Me: Good. We learned a song. (French) Would you like to sing the song?
Students: Ouaaa! (yes, in kid French)
All: Hello, Hello, Hello, What's your name? Hello, Hello, Hello. My name is____, My name is____. Hello,____. Hello,____, Hello.
Me: Good. (French)And, what does (English)"My name is____" (French)mean in French?
*student answers correctly*
Me: Very good. (French) And what does (English) "What's your name?" (French) mean in French?
*student answers correctly*
Me: Well done. (French) Who wants to come up here and have a conversation with me?
*hands go up. I call on one. Little boy comes to front. Suddenly VERY shy.*
Me: Hello.
Little boy: 'ello.
Me: What's your name?
Little boy: Was er na?
Me: My name is Meg. What's..
Little boy: ai na eh Eggs.

Ok, so not ready for conversations just yet.


Anecdote Number 2:
>Last week, before beginning to teach in any of my classrooms, I toured the schools with my advisor. Some of the teachers had me come to the front and introduce myself, then let the students ask me questions in French. One teacher actually refused to let me answer some of the questions, actually telling the students, who had had their hands up for about a minute, that their questions were not interesting enough. Just flat out, "That's not an interesting question," or, "That's a dumb question. Next?"

Anecdote Number 3:
>I wasn't so sure this year would go well when I sat in on a CP class taught by a "traveling English teacher" (a teacher who travels from school to school, just like me, teaching only English) and burst out laughing when they started singing the "hello" song (above). The kid right in front of me was completely tone deaf, but SO into the song. Luckily, I think the teacher was the only one who noticed my lapse in maturity.

Anecdote Number 4:
>Short but sweet. I went to lunch the other day at the house of the couple who welcomed me here my first weekend. They ended lunch with a spread of five different kinds of cheese and a baguette. Mmm, France; it tastes so good.

Rock concert in the shadows of a centuries old church...aww, France :)

I went to a really nifty concert in a small plaza in Orleans the other day with some friends and took some videos of what I saw. Since it takes me FOREVER to load a video on my computer, I've only uploaded the best one.

The band was the first band playing in a music festival going on all month long. This particular band (Karpatt) was a hoot and a half! These guys were born to entertain! Not only were they incredibly talented (and playing a FREE concert! I would've paid lots to see these guys...if I had the money, lol), but you could just feel the love emanating through their instruments.

This was not the best song, but it's the only one I filled in its entirety. I felt like I was probably blocking someone's view with my camera held high in the air...plus my arm started hurting. The song right after this one was a rap song (and it was AWESOME! It was really funny, though, because not 20 minutes before I had been telling Sarah how it seems to me that France is full of tall, white, bald rappers...and voila, case in point! hehe). Before starting the rap, however, he called upon the audience to give him three random words, which he used to create the rap. Raw talent, dude. Raw talent.


Alright, I'm off to print off some coloring sheets for my students. I'm teaching Halloween today! (:-D)

Photos!

I think that the best way for me to share my photos with you all is to open my photobucket account to you, where you can go whenever you so choose and browse the photos I've taken so far in Europe!

Enjoy!

FrUsTrAtEd

We’ll call this the LOW point of my culture shock track…

Je m’en fous DE:

(I’m sick OF:)

-les grèves (strikes)

-cigarette smoke (15 year olds walk around smoking like it’s no big thing too.)

-euhhh, bahhhh, le..le..le.. (the French “um…”)

-Paperwork

-being “Américaine” and the anti-American sentiments that come along with it

-harda$$ teachers

-Paperwork!

-being called “belle,” “eh, toi, Americaine!,” and “belle demoiselle” by random Frenchmen

-random men in the street shouting “’ello! You speak eengleesh? ‘ow ah ewe?”

-having an American accent

-PAPERWORK!

-no good nightlife (it’s an Orléans thing)

-the stupid exchange rate between the dollar and the euro (and hearing Brits complain about paying 35 pounds to cross the channel…I paid $1000 to get to a country that doesn’t respect me, how’s that?

-Being told to teach BRITISH words with my AMERICAN accent! (What happned to teaching MY culture?)

-Headaches

-Not understanding/faking understanding/misunderstanding

-FRANCE

The list is getting longer as today goes on, but I know deep down that it’s just the phase of culture shock that I’m in right now that’s getting me down. It’s normal. But JE M’EN FOUS! I’m SO crabby today! SO frustrated! Yesterday I got a headache halfway through the day (I was observing classes at two of my schools all day) and literally stopped being able to comprehend French in the middle of my teacher’s sentence. I just stopped understanding and processing anything he was saying and had to actually stop him and say, “wait. Start again in like 20 seconds. I can’t understand right now.” Can’t I just be fluent already or at least go to a Spanish speaking country where I actually understand what the heck is going on?! Lately I feel like I’m always taking a test; I can literally feel my brain thinking all the time. It’s exhausting, but I GUESS that’s me learning…or it had BETTER be me learning, or I’m putting myself through this for nothing.

This morning was more paperwork. Lunch break just ended. Now I have to go back to start lesson planning.

I’m privileged. I love my life. I’m privileged. I love my life. I’m privileged. I love my life. I’m privileged.

Children are SO tiring...

...but it's all worth it when things like this happen:

teacher (in French): Nicolas, bravo, you are so good at English!

student (6 years old): That's because I spent a week in Italy.

teacher (looks at me, laughing): That must be why.

Friday blog Part 2: School

Allo le monde (parte 2)

SCHOOL

This past week has been all about training. The main orientation, as I told you a couple of posts ago, was last Friday, but by Monday everyone was in their respective towns around Orléans-Tours, and we all had our own things to do. For me, that meant going to a two-part orientation on Monday and Tuesday with the other primary school assistants (there are only about 10 of us). We spent those two days talking about what to expect during these 7 months, the French school system (briefly), and basic theory. We were informed of the best places to find resources for the classroom, and we were introduced to our advisors and given our schedules. Before giving you a peak at my schedule, I’d like to explain the Orléans school system briefly (what I’ve learned so far, anyway):

The French school levels are quite similar to the U.S.’s, but go by different names. The levels are:

FIRST DEGREE

Maternelle (kindergarten)[ages 2-6]

Élémentaire (if combined with maternelle, the school is called an ‘école primaire’/primary school) [ages 6-11]

SECOND DEGREE

College (middle school)[ages 11-15]

Lycée (high school) [ages 15-18]

HIGHER EDUCATION

Université [age 18+]

I’ll be working with the kids in élémentaire, which is broken up as follows:

CP (cours préparatoire, ages 6-7)

CE1 (cours élémentaire 1st year, ages 7-8)

CE2 (cours élémentaire 2^nd year, ages 8-9)

CM1 (cours moyen 1st year, ages 9-10)

CM2 (cours moyen 2^nd year, ages 10-11)

In France children are required to begin learning English at 6 years of age (though up until three years ago, it was Spanish they were learning). I have a total of 10 classes that I will be working with each week. Three are CP, two CP/CE1, one CE2, one CE2/CM1, one CM1, one CM1/CM2, and one CM2. The classes that I’ll be writing actual lessons for and teaching myself are two of the CPs, one CP/CE1, and the CE2/CM1. In the rest of the classes I will be assisting the teachers by taking a group aside and helping them with pronunciation, culture, etc.

Just like in the U.S., France separates Church and State, and thus neither teacher nor student is allowed to wear any kind of religious paraphernalia or to talk about religion in the classroom. When it comes to holidays, we are only to teach the cultural aspects of the holidays, not their religious backgrounds or meanings. At this young an age, I don’t foresee that being much of a problem.

Teachers here also seem to be a bit more strict that in the U.S. Just a small example: In one of my schools the students were required to stand up when an adult entered the room, and could sit down only when the adult in charge said “thank you, you may be seated.” I found their voices were a bit stricter as well…but I haven’t really seen much yet, so I’ll give a better idea of the inside of a French elementary classroom once I’ve had a bit more experience.

Well, that’s all I have time for today. Until next time!

Lots of love, Meg

Friday blog Part 1: Paperwork

Allo le monde,

(That’s actually a title to a song; they don’t say ‘allo le monde’ here, lol)

Today's blog will be divided into two categories: 1.Paperwork (not all of it will be about the paperwork I've been doing, but most of it will be) 2.School (mostly about my assignments and the French primary school system)

I’ve had so many things to blog about in the past week, it’s overwhelming to be sitting here now, attempting to get it all down…but I will try, or at least I’ll get part of it down and blog again later. It’s difficult to blog about everything right after it happens, because by the time I get back from a, we’ll say “blogable,” event I’m exhausted and just want to pass out! Luckily, I’ve been taking notes on some of the things I’ve wanted to share.

For those of you curious about what kind of paperwork and steps teaching English in France requires, here’s a little preview:

-Application to program

-Letter of acceptance of post (just a little email saying “I accept the offer to teach English in France”

-Medical form (to be filled out by a dr.)

-Passport (if you don’t have one, you’d better get one!)

-Visa application (plus a trip to submit said visa)

-Plane ticket (around $1,000)

-Housing (which you may need a guarantor for…often someone who actually has a French bank account, you will also need a deposit plus the first month's rent up front)

-Bank account (which you actually need housing for)

-Renters insurance (50 euros/$69)

-Civil responsibility insurance (20 euros/$27)

-OFII form (to get permission to stay in Europe longer than 3 months…housing needed prior to filling out form)

-Social Security forms (bank account and housing needed)

-Medical insurance (105 euros/$146)

-Medical visit in France (scheduled by the OFII after papers have been processed…needed before applying for CAF)

-CAF form (a great offer from the gov. for people under 26, giving them money back on their rent each month depending on their income)

-Little papers here and there (i.e.tram/bus passes, “carte 12-25” [a discount card, costs 49 euros, but gets you half off of any train trip around France…a really good discount!]…)

Now, before getting more into paperwork, let me tell you about this morning. I woke up at 6am in order to catch a bus to another town an hour away at 7:35. I was out of the house by about 7:10 and power walked my way across the city center to the bus station (normally about a 25 minute walk, it took me about 13), only to find out that the 7:35 bus was canceled (there goes my trust in the internet…oh AND the fact that I went to the station three days ago and it was still on the schedule). The next bus isn’t until 10:50, but I was supposed to be picked up in this other town by an English teacher whom I was to be shadowing all morning. I had to call this poor woman at 7:30 in the morning to tell her that I wouldn’t be there until 11:43, and she told me she felt bad for ME! What a sweetheart. It didn’t sound like picking me up later would be too much of a problem, which is lucky, so I guess I’ll just be shadowing her in the afternoon instead. I had hoped to use that time to finish up my social security papers and to pick up my new French debit card (one of those European smart cards with the chip! Now I really feel in the game!), but I suppose that can wait until tomorrow. Who needs a social security number anyway? ;)

PAPERWORK

Speaking of social security…yes…let’s do. Let me tell you, I think it’s a law that all countries have to make it difficult in at least some way, shape, or form for foreigners to obtain their social security number. In the case of Orléans, it’s the actual finding the office itself that is the trick. There is a social security office almost literally right next to my apartment…but of course that’s not for foreigners. Oh no. We lowly folk must take the tram all the way to it’s very last stop to the north of the city (which I’m pretty convinced is NOT the city anymore) and then walk half an hour through tiny neighborhoods until coming to a highway of sorts, at which point said foreigner(s) will have to play rock, paper, scissors to decide which way to turn, as the building is nowhere in sight, and then hope that scissors lead the right way (in our case it did). Luckily for my three foreign buddies and me, once getting to the office, we were in great hands! The two women who helped us could not have been more helpful, unless, of course, they filled our papers out themselves. Unfortunately for me, I did not foresee the trek out into the middle of nowhere and, thus, did not bring my work contract or RIB (bank account information), so I have to send my paperwork in, whereas the other girls got to turn theirs in right away. *sigh* Anyway, the helpful woman made extra copies of everyone’s papers JUST so that they could have some on hand should they need them in the future. AND she gave us each these mini spiral hardcover notebooks with neon page markers and post-its inside as well, and then told us an easier way to get back into town. Overall a good trip!

We also got the paperwork for the MGEN (health insurance), which costs 105 euros for 7 months (the first three months being free, and they break it up into three installments, so we just have to pay 35 euros a month in jan, feb, and march, which is really nice!). In order to get the MGEN to cover 70% of medical costs instead of just 30%, all we have to do is find a dr. and get him/her to sign a paper saying he/she will be our “main” dr.! So that’s another thing I’ll be doing this weekend…well…Sat., as EVERYTHING in Orleans (and I mean EVERYTHING) is closed on Sundays. I also have to write a letter to the OFII office, which apparently thinks my 6’s look like 4’s and got my address wrong (yet somehow the letter still got to me, luckily)…so That’s exciting. However, the good news is that after Tuesday (which is when we sign our work contracts), just about all of my official paperwork should be done or at least very near done.

And THEN begins my work assignment…

A hectic week!

(FYI: I wrote this on Thursday 30/09)

Bonjour tout le monde!

I’ve been typing on French keyboards for the past few days and now I’m completely hopeless on my own keyboard! This is a bit ridiculous. Anywho, I arrived safely on the 23^rd in Orléans, as I let you all know the other day. I’ve been busy and not so busy since then, but mostly either without internet, with limited access, or without the patience to type an entire blog entry on a foreign keyboard (which it seems I’ve been getting quite used to, though). My flight was long and uncomfortable (though I think my poor posture can take some of the blame for that), but they made up for it by serving us dinner, a snack, breakfast and a lovely Queen Latifah movie, so I harbor no ill feelings towards American Airlines. ;)

As you know, the transportation workers were on strike when I arrived. Their positions are permanent, and, thus, since the fear of being fired is out the window, they have no qualms about going on strike I don’t know how many times a year (maybe I’m exaggerating, but it can’t be that big of a coincidence that two of the three times I’ve used the TGV in the past three years [also the only three times I’ve ever used the TGV] the workers have been on strike). Strike noted, I didn’t really have any problems getting to Orleans. I hoped on the RER to the Gare du Nord, then took a taxi (craziest ride of my life! A taxi through Paris; try it sometime…you know…if you’re into extreme sports) to the Gare D’Austerlitz, and from there bought my ticket to Orléans and about four hours later I was here! Took another taxi to the house I would be staying in for the weekend (the home of a lovely couple, the parents of a friend of the family’s, who even froze ratatouille and soup for me, since they were gone for the weekend). Friday I had an appointment with my landlord to look at the apartment I was interested in, and on Monday I moved in. I’m all settled now, after a trip to the local “Wal-Mart” or sorts. I also have a phone now, if you want my phone number or my address or both, leave me a message and I’ll email it to you, or send you a Facebook message! J I’d love mail!

So, in the past two days, I’ve opened a bank account, bought a pay-as-you-go phone, tried to purchase internet for my flat (denied…need a bank card, which will be mailed to me in about a week…bummer), bought home supplies, gotten renters insurance, sent my OFII papers (papers that allow me to be in France legally for more than three months), felt a bit like a babbling idiot, and internally cried over the terrible exchange rate from Dollars to Euros (chocolate helped me out with that one…oh, and creating a list of expenditures and a basic budget…I’m learning mom, tom, and dad!)

There are two other Americans living in my apartment building. One is a girl named Sarah, who I’ve been running all of my errands with. She’s really a sweetie! The other is a guy named Patrick (from Michigan!), who was an English assistant last year too, and now he’s also got a position teaching Math at the same school. He’s been helpful in things such as fixing my bed/couch (apparently it’s broken, so It’s going to have to stay as a bed for a while, until my landlord gets back from his vacation, lol), fixing whatever I did to my water heater…whoops…and just in general with answering questions about France and the way things work around here. He, Sarah, and I met up with some of the other assistants the other day for some drinks. It’s really neat to meet people from all over the world who have come to France for the same thing as I have, and who are just as nervous/excited! I’ve also met some Erasmus students.

I just had a meeting with the assistantship program’s regional coordinators, Myriam and Pascal, and they helped to calm my nervous quite a bit and answered lots of questions I had. We have our orientation tomorrow, where we’ll get a ton of information and meet our fellow assistant teachers from all over the world, and then on Monday and Tuesday the primary school teachers (that’s me!) will have two further days of orientation, during which time we’ll meet our contact person (the person who will be helping us on an individual basis with our actual schools). I was told I had one school when I got my assignment in early September, but I was told today I actually have three! They’re all in the same area though, so it should be pretty simple. I’ll be working only 12 hours a week, with PLENTY of vacation time here and there! I’m really excited!! Myriam and Pascal basically laid out my next month for me and it looks really straight-forward and ‘tranquille,’ so it should be a good way to ease into my position.

I’m a big bundle of nervous energy, but it’s just the beginning and I’m excited to learn a TON this year!

I apologize for such a long-winded entry, but there’s been SO much going on this week and expressing it all in this post is quite difficult to do. I’ll post another update after my orientation/first week and all that jazz.

A bientôt!