The Definition of "Home"

October 22, 2009

First and foremost, I would like to say that I’m not intentionally ignoring anyone. It is extremely hard to do anything without Internet and due the highly unorganized nature of the French I’m not really sure when I’ll be getting it (supposedly Oct. 31st) so bear with me. I will try my hardest to get to everyone’s messages and responses. Thank you for thinking of me and I miss you guys so much!…….. Now on to my adventures in France:

I’m sitting in my dim-lit kitchen drinking black coffee (which I’m addicted to now) and reflecting on my one-month anniversary in France. There are so many new things I have adopted, like my new coffee addiction. I swear I have drank more coffee since arriving here than in my entire life. I’m at about 3-4 cups per day just to keep me at bay. Other things I have adapted to: Not having ice in my drinks, getting nearly run over every time I attempt to cross a crosswalk, Not having anything organized whatsoever, The insane winds they call Les Mistrals here. Insane is a bit of an understatement, I think I may invest in an umbrella and travel Mary-Poppins style all over the city. So I think its fair to say that I’m at a point were Bollene is starting to become “Home” for me. I still miss my family/friends like crazy. There have been days were I’ve been on the verge of tears and days were I couldn’t imagine ever leaving, everyday feels like a roller coaster ride but maybe I’m getting less motion sick. I will say that teaching has been an experience in itself. I really love it, although there have been ups and downs to it as well. Let me give you the low-down on what’s been going on the past few weeks:

Lycee (High School) Lucie Aubrac: This School is my “Primary” School where I spend most of my time and where I take care of my administrative documents. The first person I met there was the principle, Madame Duface (not sure if I’m spelling her name right) all I know is her name is pronounced like “Dough Fass” which reminds me of “Doofus” which unfortunately makes me laugh and remember her name at the same time. She’s stern but sweet and very direct. She reminds me of my high school track coach, she’s small but packs a mean punch. I’m praying that I don’t piss her off. After our initial meeting, She passed me right along to the gang of English teachers that I work with. There’s Cecil, Florence, Erwan and Georges. They’ve been immensely helpful We all hang out in the “Salle des Professures” AKA the Teacher’s lounge that reeks of a mystery smell that I cannot put my finger on. They tell me all the things I need to know: Where to go when the kids are bad (La Vie Scolaire), where to take the list of absent students (La Vie Scolaire) and the classrooms I will be working in (not La Vie Scolaire) Another dynamic player in my new teaching life is the Spanish teacher who ironically speaks as good (if not better) English than the English teachers. She has really made me feel welcome and she’s always there to be a friendly face :-) ok so now I’ll begin telling you about my actual hands on classroom experience. I’m usually left alone with about 5-10 students, on some occasions I’m left with 2. I have the fortunate opportunity to have free reign in the class, as long as the students are speaking English I can pretty much do whatever lesson plans I please. I thought for the first couple weeks I would just introduce myself and have the students tell me a little about themselves. The questions usually revolved around subjects such as: My age, my relationship status, Spring Break, if I know any cowboys or George Bush, and if all Americans are fat…. Fun times ;-) Things they chose to share with me included: their favorite T.V. shows (all American) like Prison Break, Gossip Girl, and Desperate Housewives. Things they like to do for fun: hang out with friends, go to clubs and listening to music. In other words French teens are just like American teens.
I would love to say that all the kids were great and never gave me any problems but seriously I did mention I was teaching teenagers didn’t I? So I’m teaching one of my classes and there’s this student let’s call him “R”, who is refusing to care and also initiating conversations with several of his classmates. To make matters worse he’s speaking (Gasp) French the whole time. So in the most authoritative voice I can muster I say something like this: “if you don’t want to be here you can leave the class” and he replies: “sorry I’ll stop” but guess what he doesn’t stop and he’s managed to get two other students to participate in his disobedience. At this point I’m fuming and just like 5 year olds I separate each of the boys to separate corners in the classroom. But to be honest situations like that are few and far between. For the most part the students are great! They’re usually excited to see me and if they aren’t speaking English it’s usually out of fear, which I completely understand because the French language and I are having our own problems. I’m eagerly planning a lesson plan revolving around the Breakfast Club as well as the dissecting of some lyrics to some of my favorite songs. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

College (Junior High School) Paul Eluard: To be honest I was a little afraid of teaching at this school. After all Junior High is usually not a fun time, for most it’s when you’re just in the beginning stages of puberty and well, discovering adolescence. But on the contrary they were marvelous :-) While walking through the halls searching for the classroom two young girls approached me and asked if I was a student…. I nearly peed my pants; I don’t get mistaken for a 13 year old often enough. After I explained to them that I wasn’t a student but the new English assistant they took me right along to Madame Gre’co. Madame Gre’co is from Africa (Cote D’Ivoire or the Ivory Cost for you English speakers) I’m not going to lie, I think we built an instant camaraderie based on the fact that we are both black/African :-) Hey, there isn’t much diversity in Bollene so it was refreshing to meet someone like me and I think the feeling was mutual. When I entered her classroom all the kids stood up and immediately greeted me with enthusiastic “Hello”s and “Good Afternoon”s they were (are) adorable. She explained to the class that I was the new language assistant and that I came from America. When she told them I was from Texas their eyes bugged out….. and then they asked about Texas Rangers (specifically Walker) One of the students asked if it was possible to drive to Texas from Bollene and I explained to him that sadly it wasn’t. They were even more surprised that it took 8 hours by plane to get to France from America. They thought it was more like two hours; ah you gotta love youth ;-)

I have one more school in a nearby city called Orange. In order to make this blog short I’ll recap on that school (and on my other exciting endeavors) in my next post.

In conclusion, I kinda love teaching, or my little glimpse of it, a lot….. Until next time folks :-)

Bisous,
HK