Objectif proof that my French is improving...

is that I just talked to Faima on the phone, and I probably understood 70 or maybe even 75% of what she said, instead of 30%!! I'm so excited, I'll actually not embarass myself when I see her, I'll probably even be able to understand most of it! Yay! (I'm going to see her on the 10th of November.)

Yesterday it was raining, which didn't really motivate me to get to the library, but I did it anyway and was there for a really long time. It's really nice, because there's enough people there that when you get too tired, you can take a break and people watch without leaving your seat. I read a lot about intellectuels during the Dreyfus affair, which is surprisingly interesting! I think I might go back Thursday (yes, I am that nerd who is using her vacations to get ahead in her studies...) and try some more history of rock books, since evidently I don't have class because it's a holiday. But we'll see, I might take a holiday too...

Today was SO SUCCESSFUL, I went to the Prefecture and came out with a Recipissee! Which means 'This is proof that I turned in my documents and am now waiting another month before I will have the real carte de sejour.' I was supposed to have the appointment at 10, but I went at 9 because I wasn't sure if I was going to have to wait in line...it took me till 10:30 anyway!!! I'm not actually joking about the month thing, it's really not going to be ready until after December 3rd...as long as all the documents are okay, which they may not be since my name is actually spelled with one L on the attestation d'hebergement. I didn't say anything, I hope they won't notice...we'll see! I've heard that it takes three times to do anything administrative in France, and if things go well...then yes, it'll have taken me three times to get the thing. Actually, I wondered, the first time I went in there, why all the other people knew what was going on and didn't have to ask for help...now I can understand that it's because they've all been there probably twice before!

I met this other TA girl there who said I'm going to need to translate my birth certificate for the health insurance people, I'll have to look into that further because the translation thing doesn't sound like much fun...

Afterward, I met Anne and we went to Maisons-Lafitte to visit Jean-Francois, it was really nice! He made us lunch and stuff and took us around the town a little. It was nice, it's a nice suburb and fairly bourgeois, according to him. His house was really, really nice, his family lived in China for a while so they have all kinds of amazing Chinese furniture and pottery and everything. He's such a funny guy, he went through a goth period in high school and kept everything from it, he was showing us today...it was very romantic goth, so lots of lace and really wacky jewelry. He's so serious about it too, but he's making fun of himself. I don't know quite how to describe it, but it was really entertaining. Now he's studying 'naturopathy,' natural healing stuff, and he does a lot of yoga and is studying plants and energies and stuff like that. Anne asked if he went straight from being goth to being a yog-ist, evidently there was a transition in there somewhere. Either way I really enjoy hanging out with him.

I came back with Anne, I took the 14 line metro, it's electric and runs with no driver, it was strange. There was an abnormally large number of businessmen there. I am trying to get some homework done, but of course blogs are more interesting than homework so I'm doing this instead...but now I should really go read, so a toute a l'heure!

P.S. The top picture is Escalier F, Prefecture de Paris, where you go for your titres de sejour. The other picture's from Maisons Lafitte.

Another week in Paris...and Chartres!

Centre Pompidou!

Chartres!


Monday I did successfully make it to the library, it was actually great. I read some books for History of Rock, and I'm actually going to go back tomorrow to read some more. I really enjoyed being there, I think tomorrow I'm going to look for some books for my Europe classes, too. Tuesday was another normal day at Victor Hugo, it was week B so I got some 6e and they all want me to bring them American names. I think I like the 6e classes best...though I really, really like some 4e at Louis Issaurat...the littlest ones are just so nice, they still don't hate school that much and they think I'm a lot older than them, so they are not mean.
Tuesday night I went to the Institut Finlandais again for another documentary, this one was about the Finnish military service requirement - apparently the civil service option (which is one year) is longer than any other country's requirement in Europe. Also, Finland is the only European country that puts people in jail for being conscientous observers. The film followed three guys who were all 18-20 who each chose a different option, it was really interesting. It was definitely the highlight of my Tuesday!
The rest of the week was fairly normal, I was supposed to go to another orientation on Friday but it was after Finnish, and I didn't even make it to the train station until 4, and the thing was supposed to end at 5, so I just didn't go because it would have taken me a half hour to get out there, and I just didn't think it would have been worth it. And it was fine, because then I got to hang out with Anne - we went to a bar place in the Marais and I had my first citron presse (it's really just fresh lemon juice) and we stayed there for hours and talked about all kinds of stuff (what a French lesson!). Since Greg's mom lives in Chartres, she told me some places to go. I didn't get in until 2, but we had so much fun! I think I forgot to mention that we're giving each other mutual French/English lessons, which I think will be really helpful for me - she's helping me with paper writing and stuff, like the actual words you're supposed to use and formats and stuff. I'm helping her talk about sustainable development, because that's the kind of program she wants to do, and apparently they all require English! It's funny to be in France and speak English with Anne...but it's fun to do, and then we get to see each other at least once a week anyway.
So Saturday I went to Chartres with Elly and Cory! We got the train from Montparnasse (which is kind of an insane station...) at 9:30 in the morning and got into Chartres at 10:30. It's really a small town, but it's famous for its cathedral...which is really incredible. It's huge (not as huge as Strasbourg or Cologne) and incredibly beautiful. Apparently its real beginnings were in the 4th century, but there's nothing left from that period. The earliest remains are from the 6th century, but of course we weren't allowed to see those. It was burned a few times...once by the Vikings...anyway most of the church is from the 12th century, it has 176 stained glass windows from the 12th and 13th centuries, and it's also the place where the color Chartres blue comes from, it's all over the windows. Anyway it's beautiful, the outside architecture is amazing as well, we spent so long there! Then we walked around the top of the town for a while, got some crepe lunches, and then walked down to the river (the Eure) where there are beautiful little houses next to the river. It's very picturesque and very typically French. We went to another church, where they happened to be having a fungus exposition (I'm not lying, though it may seem completely unbelievable)...we just wanted to see the church, but then there were hundreds of mushroom and other types of fungus specimen, and the craziest part was the number of people there who seemed a. interested and b. like they knew what was going on. It was one of the strangest things that's ever happened in my life! There was also a really pretty medieval garden outside complete with every herb ever and an absinthe plant (just in case you were wondering how they make absinthe...). We were really tired by the end of the day but we had a great time!! I'm so glad we went!
Like I said, tomorrow is the library again, and then Tuesday's the big Prefecture day! Hopefully this time I'll come out with a recipisse instead of nothing!!!!!

Le Mont St Michel, and being the first person to ever exit the Prefecture de Police with a smile.

Saturday I went to le Mont St Michel with MICEFA folks, it was about a 4 hour bus ride from Paris into the north of France. The bus ride was okay, it was beautiful to drive through the countryside, but of course a couple of girls would not shut up and I didn't get to sleep at all (I was up at 5 so that I would make it to MICEFA on time in case I couldn't get a bus, which I did). For those who don't know, le Mt-St-Mich is an 8th century abbey that is built on an island in the Atlantic (I guess it's in the Atlantic...), and there's a little town there around the abbey and everything. As soon as we got there, me, Cory, Cecile, and Elly decided to ditch everyone else from MICEFA, and we decided to go straight to the abbey, which turned out to be a good idea because we beat a huge group of people. It's really just amazing, I'm not sure I can describe the place in words because it's so much about the feeling you get walking around a place that's so old and so beautiful. It's just sort of incredible to think of what it must have been like in the 10th century when there were pilgrims and monks and who knows who else there. The view from the top of the island is amazing, too. We were so lucky to have amazing weather, too. After we toured the abbey, we walked around on the beach for a while, and it was wild because it's sand there, but it's really just mud because it's saturated all the time. We were there during low tide, but when the tide comes in, it comes right up to the bottom of the island. Unfortunately we couldn't stay to watch the tide come in, which was a bummer, but it was also quite fun to play around on the rocks and in the sand. It was great to get a vacation from Paris for a day, and Elly and Cory and I decided that we may go to Chartres this Saturday because it's so nice to have a break...
The way back wasn't bad, though those girls were annoying again...we didn't get back too late, but traffic getting back into Paris was awful because it was the rugby final and there were just tons of people. Elly came back with me to eat, we took the bus, and then I slept so well on Saturday night. Sunday I was supposed to go out with the same girls for lunch, but I woke up and Anne texted me and asked if I wanted to watch a rhythmic gymnastics competition, so I ended up doing that instead. It was totally awesome, I've never seen RSG in real life, so it was awesome. I'm going to go to some of Anne's competitions in November and December...I'm really excited about it! Afterward we went to Bois de Vincennes with Gregoire and sat by the lake for a while, it was really nice but it got a little chilly. I went home and failed at doing my homework...sigh.
Today has been really productive so far! I went to the Prefecture to do the carte de sejour, and I think I discovered the secret to making French bureaucracy workers not be mean to you...well, the first lady I talked to was not very nice, but then I went in and talked to this secretary guy, and I was very nice to him, and I shocked him by having all my documents...he asked me for them one by one, and he seemed so sure that he was going to stump me, but I had everything and more! Actually the problem came when he needed the attestation d'hebergement, which is the document that says that I have housing, and he couldn't accept what I had, and he even said 'C'est dommage,' as if he were disappointed by the fact that he could not help me, since I already had everything. He gave me an appointment for next Tuesday (I completely forgot that vacation starts then!) and then called Adrien at ACCENT and he's going to try to hurry the guy who's doing the attestation up so that I can have it by then. Anyway he turned out to be nice, I just kept smiling the whole time and being nice and having my documents, I guess that's how to not piss people off! I almost got lost trying to find the exit...it was a little silly.
I decided then to go to the Centre Pompidou to go to the library, but of course I forgot that it's not open before noon, so I thought I'd do my grocery shopping and write this blog. I'm working on uploading the pictures from MSM but of course I have almost 200 so it's taking a little while. I guess I should try to make it to the library this afternoon and I can take as much time as I want, so I guess I'll end the blog for now.

La visite medicale et toujours la greve!

So I wanted to explain the strike a bit better, I got a 'Appel a la Greve' in my mailbox this morning at Louis Issaurat (among other things I got in the mailbox...urgh) and it explains all the details about why everyone's striking. Basically, Sarkozy's trying to impose a law that seems mostly to affect people who work for a salary. He's trying to make them work for longer (usually they work 37.5 years, he's trying to extend it to 40), and he's also reducing their pensions depending on when they retire - it's worse if you retire at 60 than at 65, but even those who retire at 65 will have their pensions reduced, according to this new law. He's also trying to reduce military pensions. Evidently he's also trying to reduce the number of people on salary by 22,000 by 2008, which includes 11,200 people in education - and making up for it by having teachers work in more than one school, etc. The strike is also against the privatisation of Social Security, which is what Sarko's all about (and for students, it's against the privatisation of universities - he's trying to make at least some schools private). There's also an addition on this sheet that I got from the school that it's against his immigration policies and the deportation of individuals who don't have their papers. So it seems like a broad range of complaints against Sarkozy, but it has really been a large-scale strike, and people don't really seem to want to back down.

Yesterday, I waited for a metro to Creteil for 45 minutes before I gave up. Line 8 (which is the one I take to Creteil) seems to be having a lot of problems - I think it's the ones that extend furthest into the banlieue which are the most affected. Anyway, I didn't want to get stuck out there and miss my class. So I stayed home and got some work done, and then I walked to Censier for class - it turns out that the walk is nice and probably about as long as the bus ride! As for today, I really had to make it to Creteil, and the metro was really, really packed. It's usually busy, but this time it was unbelievable. I waited about 25 minutes this morning before a train came, and then I got to Louis Issaurat and found out that my medical visit for my carte de sejour was...this afternoon! In Montrouge! (They received the fax on Tuesday, and I just got it this morning!) I wouldn't have been so stressed out about it except for the strike! I went to one class, the 6e, who chose their American names, they were so excited about it, and then I left! I waited about 20 minutes for the metro this time, and it was really kind of scary because it was so full, I thought I wasn't going to be able to get out! Luckily I did, I got home, grabbed my passport and every document about anything ever, and then had to head to Montrouge.

If you're looking at a map of Paris, Montrouge is basically south central suburb, right outside of the city (literally, you cross the peripherique and you're in Montrouge), but I didn't want to take the 13 line, which is closer to there, because I didn't want to have to change trains, so I walked to St Michel to take the 4 line to Porte d'Orleans, which is still in Paris but on the way to Montrouge, and man, it was a loooooong walk. It was much longer than I thought it would be. Luckily I got a train right away, and I made it to Montrouge without getting lost, though I walked about 2 miles before I found the ANAEM (the place for the medical visits). And of course, the visit took about 30 minutes, I got special treatment for being a TA...it was kind of weird to have a medical visit in French. I had to read alphabet eye charts, and I was so scared she was going to think I couldn't see because I mixed up letter sounds! And I had to get a chest x-ray (they let me keep it!!!!) and then I had to do my blood pressure - respirez, soufflez (breathe in, breathe out), and I had to talk about vaccinations...she asked me if I had had my vaccinations, I didn't know which ones she was talking about but I'm assuming I had them all before I came to school. Either way, I got some stuff stamped, got authorized to work, and was out around 2. I took a bus back to the metro, and I got back to Paris fine, I stopped by ILPGA to see about the Finnish class (Verena had texted me earlier to say that it was cancelled, but then she wasn't sure), and I talked to some dudes from my class and they said that it was cancelled and also told me where to find the bus. They were nice, I was excited. Anyway then I came back, went to ACCENT to copy EVERYTHING so that I can go to the prefecture on Monday (though I don't have a real attestation d'hebergement so they might not accept me yet) and then I got some Photomaton pictures done (they are so bad, of course), and now I'm ready to go to the prefecture...hopefully things go fine!!!

Sasha came over for dinner - Elly, Hannah, and Cecile were also supposed to come but they couldn't get transportation and didn't want to get stuck, so they didn't, which is fine cause I'll see them tomorrow anyway. I had a really nice time with Sasha, she updated me on everything, and things seem to be going well for her. I went to the Marche at Aligre earlier today and got some veggies, so I made a nice salad with some good dressing...I even broke down and bought some buffalo mozarella from this Italian dude who's at the market, so I put it on my salad, basalmic vinaigrette dressing with garlic, it was really awesome. Now I have a massive amount of really good lettuce in my fridge, I hope I can eat it all before it goes bad!

So anyway, that's my life from the past two days, I am looking forward to a little vacation tomorrow to Mont Saint Michel. I'l definitely be posting about that, probably Sunday, so keep your eyes out, and until then...la greve continue!!!

BONNE GREVE!

Starting at 8 tonight is what hopefully promises to be a huge strike by the SNCF (train system), RATP (Paris transport system), and pretty much everyone else (some of the teacher from Victor Hugo are striking). It's set to be really big, but we'll see, some people think it'll be much smaller than has been forewarned. However, I will be experiencing it full force, since I'm set to go to Creteil tomorrow morning, and the banlieue are going to be the hardest to get into/out of. I just tried to connect to the RATP's website, where they're posting new information as soon as they have it, and there are already too many people on it! Luckily our professor let us out early tonight so we'd all make the last trains/busses home...and we didn't have our class in the middle of the day, so in fact my busiest day was probably my easiest for the week.

Saturday I went to see the rugby game on giant screens at the Champ de Mars (the big field in front of the Eiffel Tower, it sparkled during the game) with Elly and Hannah (and some random other people from Cordon Bleu, where Hannah goes - the cooking school). It was really fun, some random French dude sat with us and explained the game to me, which was nice. I couldn't see that well, but France was winning until about the last minute, when England scored a large number of points and won...thus ended the hope of a home team victory. On my walk home, I ran into Molly and Daryn and Carla (from AU, they're in Rome and Brussels and were visiting for the weekend...I didn't even know they were in Europe!) and they broke a bottle of wine on the sidewalk...

Sunday I mostly relaxed and did some work, my friend Verena from my Finnish class came over, it was very nice. We had tea, of course. Monday was another work day...I was going to go to the library for my history of rock class but then I discovered (thanks to Anne) that libraries are closed Mondays, and plus I got really confused as to where/what/who I was supposed to be looking for. So I went to dinner at Anne's instead, it was really fun. They made a cauliflower gratin that was delicious. Anne & Greg think I should go to the Pompidou Center's library because it's fairly easy to access the books and you don't have to get a card. I just don't know when it'll be possible if it's closed on the days I'm off, I guess we'll see.

Tuesday was an adventure at Victor Hugo again. I had some good kids in the morning, then I had to threaten some kids with 'I will not talk in class' because they were laughing at fart noises (but they were 12 or something, when it's still kind of okay to laugh at fart noises, and then someone actually farted, too...). Unfortunately I'm having a lot of trouble with the 3e European group, I guess because it's the last class of the day, they just never want to work and I choose to stay the extra hour so I can benefit them...I usually get one good (ish) group and one bad group, and the bad group made me so mad because I asked them to write their names on papers so I could read and learn them, and they just wrote nasty things in French (thank goodness they were things I knew or that could have been bad) and I just thought it was ridiculous that I was trying to do something nice to get to know them and they couldn't even respect that. I think I made one kid feel bad, I hope so. I guess I'm dealing with a different level of maturity than I'm used to, huh? At least I got to see a Finnish movie afterward, I went to the Finnish institute with Verena to watch this cool documentary about some kids who didn't do anything with their lives, I thought it was really well done. We're going again next week, and I'm really looking forward to it! It's a nice way to relax after being at Victor Hugo all day!

Today should have been really busy...but I had grammaire du texte this morning (I pleased Mme Le Coadic with one of the texts that I wrote!) and then my first European studies class was cancelled because the professor wasn't there, and the second one was short because of the strike. It turned out to be a good class, too.

So tomorrow should be interesting, I'm totally unsure of what I'll be doing because it all will depend on whether or not the metro runs and how often. Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow with some pictures of the strike, and I'll try to get a more complete idea of why they're striking (I know partially, I just want to see how big it is and who actually gets involved). So, until tomorrow...BONNE GREVE!!!!

Minä en ole ulkona!

More pictures of Creteil: the Palais de Justice and the area where Louis Issaurat is

Yay, not a whole week in between posts this time! I'm quite proud of myself, really. I would have posted sooner, but I had to fend off a nasty cold earlier this week. I seem to have beaten it, let's hope I don't speak too soon! I'm pretty sure the entire city of Paris has been sick either this week or last week, so no wonder.

Tuesday I went to Victor Hugo, I swear that school is going to wear me out. They really think they're better than Louis Issaurat but those kids are so bad! I tried to talk about Thornton Wilder for a 3e, because they're learning about Shakespeare, but they didn't understand and would not listen at all, I was so frustrated. Later I had to yell at kids, like really kind of yell, in French, because they wouldn't listen and they don't think I'm serious or that I can do anything. In every class there are some kids who really stand out or at least who make the effort, but the other ones really hinder everyone else. I guess it's like that everywhere, but it's very frustrating, especially when you're not quite a teacher and they don't think they owe you the same respect...not that they really respect the teachers either...the day was okay there, I was with 3 6e classes, and I like them, they're still young and not adolescent jerks yet.Oh, and Mme Tejerina got piiiiiissed off because Mme Bluteau took me for both her 6e classes, even though the week before I was with Mme Tejerina's class (they have a weird Semaine A/Semaine B thing where the schedules change) and in front of her class in French she expressed her severe dislike for Mme Bluteau, it was...well, it seemed very inappropriate to me to say that in front of a class. But hey, I'm just the assistant, who am I to comment on in-school politics.

Wednesday was great, except for the sick thing, I had three classes and they all went well. I finally understand the grammar stuff Mme Le Coadic was explaining to us (thank goodness, I can't handle not understand grammar, no matter what language it is), and then I had falafel for lunch in the Sorbonne neighborhood. It was cheap and they gave me tea while I waited! Then I had my Euro classes, and they were both good, I talked in the identities one! We had to research Flemish authors, and she was randomly calling on people (though almost no one did it) and she called on me, and I had answers, she was pleased. It was kind of exciting. :-) The other Euro class was also fun, the professor's kind of wacky but I like him. He makes fun of the US a lot, I mean like the Bush administration, normal stuff you make fun of about the US.

Thursday I went to Louis Issaurat in the morning, I had four classes, and they were generally good. One was a 3e with Mme Ruze, they were great and almost everyone talked. Then I had Mme Kerkouri's class (she's the one who also works at Victor Hugo) and they were kind of bad. I don't think they're as bad as the kids at Victor Hugo but she thinks they are worse...weird, I thought generally they weren't too bad, or at least not worse. Anyway then I had Mme Michel's two 4e classes, and they were fine. One was better than the other, but they were generally okay kids. I'm going to just take groups of kids, like the better halves of classes for the higher forms, and work with them. There are some kids in Mme Michel's classes that can express themselves decently in English, one girl was telling me how she has played the violin for ten years and was asking me about playing clarinet, it was really impressive. I'm looking forward to working with smaller groups of kids there and really getting to know them better. Thursday night was histoire du rock, it's such a funny class for me. There was a French Canadian girl sitting behind me talking to a French girl, and her accent was SO funny, I was really excited. I still didn't introduce myself to the professor, I think it might be too late now...

Today has been great so far, I think I'll like Fridays a lot even if they start at 6 a.m. I was so excited to wake up and feel well that I didn't even mind this morning! (Though I did go to bed around 10 last night...) I had Mme Schaller's 6e in the morning, I took half the class for 30 minutes and the other half for the other 30. I really like them, they're a bit rowdy, but they want to learn and generally pay attention. They are excited to choose American names, one kid already wants to be Kobe Bryant and I'm sure the others are going to choose names like that too. Actually, they are learning nationalities, it's really interesting because they have lots of questions about it because they were all born in French, so their nationality is French, but their parents aren't French, so they have a different origin. So I got to teach them 'my nationality is French, but my origin is whatever,' which isn't really a good way to say that but it was the simplest thing I could think of. I've got kids whose origins are Moroccan, Algerian, Congolese, Guadeloupean, Martiniquean (are those the proper adjectives, does anyone know?), Portuguese, Sri Lankan...I think that was all. But for me it was so cool to see how they expressed that and that it was important to know exactly how to say it in English (considering that they're from 10 and a half to 13 - and yes, I did have to teach them 10 and a half). Anyway the other class I had today was really good again, we talked about the United States and this one guy knew all the cities and where everything was and I was impressed, because most of the kids didn't even know there were 50 states, or what a state was. It's apparently really confusing to have states and cities that aren't the same thing.

This afternoon I tried to eat grape leaves from the Greek place for lunch but they were frozen, it was so disappointing, I had to wait until after Finnish. Finnish was awesome (how can an hour and a half of Finnish not be awesome?) and we learned all about introducing ourselves and how to say 'I am not outside' (hense the subject line). I think I'm going to hang out with Verena (the nice German girl in my Finnish class) on Sunday, that should be fun. I think that even if I don't learn that much grammatically in this class I'm definitely going to be able to speak better...or at all. I will really have the chance to (finally) remember these things and maybe be comfortable speaking a little in real life. We'll see, I still love having the class.

Tomorrow France plays England in the rugby semi-final, I'm probably going to watch it on a big screen at the Hotel de Ville with Elly. I hope France wins, just so the city will go totally crazy again! As for tonight, I haven't decided if I should have one more night in to make sure I'm well or if I should try to do something more interesting, we'll see. Bon, a tout a l'heure - nakemiin!

Class, Nuits Blanches, Salon Zen...La Vie Parisienne!

Huge apologies for taking such a long time to post a blog about the week! It's just kind of been one things after another, but in a good way, I think. So here is what's about to be the longest post in the history of Blogger, I hope it doesn't become horrendously boring!!!

I guess I'll start with Wednesday, which was my first day of real classes. In the morning I had Grammaire du Texte, my only MICEFA class, with Michele Le Coadic (who I had in September, too) and honestly I think it'll be the hardest class. I mean, I don't even know what to call half the things we talked about, we're picking apart Rousseau and Dumas grammatically. Cecile and I tried to do the homework last night and failed at a good chunk of it...the Grammar Queen seems to have found a grammar that is a true challenge...anyway hopefully the class will progress and I'll start to understand more what exactly is going on. After the class I had to go pick up my student card from MICEFA (FINALLY!!!) Then I ran to Censier, where I have my European studies classes. The first one is 'La construction culturelle des identites nationales en Europe' and my professor is Svetla Moussakova, I think maybe she's originally Bulgarian. It should be an interesting class, she talked for a while about what it means to be in the 'European studies' program and then the bibliography, but I think overall it'll be a neat class. Actually there was an adventure beforehand because we didn't have a room, but eventually we sort of took one over. It's a huge class, and there are only about 10 French people - it's mostly other Europeans and one other MICEFA girl whose name I think is Kristen (who is also in Grammaire du Texte). The I had to kill 2 hours, I should have gone home...but I stayed on the campus and read, and I also called ILPGA to see about registering for the Finnish class, and the mean guy tried to tell me the class was really full and he wasn't sure if I could be in it, that I would have to go see the secretary first before going to class (even though class was at 8:30 in the morning on Thursday). So I was still freaking out about that class at that point, but I had to go to 'The EU and its nations, 1815-1914' which is taught by Professor Delauney, who tries to speak slowly but gets really excited about Clausewitz and Hegel and then...well let's just say note-taking is a real adventure in the class! But I think those Euro classes will both be really interesting!

Thursday morning I decided to go to the Finnish class anyway, even though I hadn't seen the secretary and the guy told me not to come, I really didn't want to miss the first class. We were all waiting outside for it to start, and then we went in and...they changed the time! Now it's on Friday afternoons at 2! At first I didn't know at all what to do, because of course I really, really wanted to take the course, but I'm supposed to be working on Friday afternoons. I decided to go ahead and register, and I called Mme Michel from Louis Issaurat - luckily she picked up the phone - and she told me to go ahead and register, that we'd fix the schedule so I can come in on Thursday mornings too. So I gave the secretary my student card, told her I only wanted to take the Finnish class, and she put me in there in 2 seconds, no problem. Thanks, mean dude. Oh well, at least I'm registered! Anyway then I had to go to my training for work, unfortunately I got there almost on time. Gosh, it was pretty much the most useless thing I've done in a long time. It was done by two English teachers, the guy was nice enough but I didn't really like the lady. They just kind of lectured to us about how we should teach, so I didn't find it very useful, and no one could really pay attention...they sort of tried to have us work in groups but couldn't agree on what we should do, so they just didn't. They also asked us what 'authentic' stuff we brought...one girl said she brought stuff she had gotten from a teaching store, and they said that wasn't authentic...and I said I brought children's books and they told me French students don't read aloud, that is completely useless, did you read aloud when you were in school? And I said, why, yes, we read aloud through high school. Thankfully some other kids came to my rescue and said they had seen kids doing it in their schools here, and the lady got mad because 'they're not supposed to be doing that' - thanks, lady, becaues you run the world. And what they consider 'authentic' is worksheets with maps of the UK 'Patrick is from Northern Ireland, color in the shamrock and paste it on his shirt.' (not kidding). I'm supposed to go to another one but it's on a Friday at the same time as my Finnish class, so I really can't go to it...I might even lie and say I have a test...

Thursday night I had my History of Rock class, I think it's really going to be cool. I'm pretty sure I might be the only American in it, which is cool, the professor is Olivier Julien and he's a little dude who apparently knows a lot about music. We are going to focus on music in the 50s and on, and more how 'musique populaire' (which isn't popular music, it's more like 'grassroots' music) influenced mainstream culture and the mainstream music industry. We're only going to talk about the US and the UK, and last class we talked mostly about jazz and R&B and 'country-western' music from the 50s in the US, I think this week is going to be some more about mainstream stuff because 1954 is when Elvis Presley signed to Sun Records, and we're talking about record labels and everything too. The only problem for the class is that I can't understand the English words he says...like when he was talking about 1954 I totally didn't have a clue he was talking about Elvis, I had to read it on someone else's paper!!!!

Friday I went over to Creteil again to go to Louis Issaurat, and it really went well. I only had two classes, but I was so impressed by both of them. One was a 6eme with Aude Schaller (she's really young!) and they were so well behaved, and while they didn't know much, they were excited to have me there. They were also REALLY well behaved, they actually listened when she said to be quiet...anyway then I had 2 hours free, but I met with Mme Michel and we went all over and met important people and made my schedule for Thursday mornings and everything. Then I went to class with Mme Philippeau, who for some reason I thought might be kind of a push-over, but man, that was the best class I've seen yet. They were SO well-behaved, and the way they interacted was really awesome. They had English 'names' like we used to do in French class, and when someone said something wrong the other students corrected it, but they ALL participated, except for one kid. I was really amazed, they really knew what was going on and what was being asked of them, instead of usually when you feel like half the class is fine but the other half has no clue what's going on. I am really looking forward to working with them, and also to Thursday when I get to meet the other classes at Louis Issaurat.

I was so exhausted by Friday, but I had made plans to hang out with Elly and Cecile, so they came over with Hannah (Elly's roommate) and we made 'Mexican' food... we used red beans and some kind of Dutch cheese, but it turned out great! We had beans, corn, green pepper, I made rice, we had some guacamole and really the WORST salsa I've ever had in my life, but it was really nice. Then we watched the end of Stick It, which I had started with Elly, and we drank a bunch of wine (now I have like 4 bottles on my counter because I haven't recycled them yet, let's just hope no one from ACCENT comes by!). I'm glad they came, we had a nice time, even if I was really tired.

On Saturday Sasha asked me to come to Defense, but since I was kind of just there and I really wasn't feeling great by Friday night I decided to sleep in instead, since Anne had already invited me to dinner. So I slept late Saturday and spent the afternoon on the phone, really, and then I went to Anne's at 8. I took them some flowers because I keep going over there for dinner empty-handed, I got some chamomiles and some purple stuff, it was really pretty. Jean-Francois and his really cool friend Ariane came, we had pasta and really nice pear cake, it was great. Then we went to the Tuileries to meet Greg's friend Sophie, who's an art student somewhere in Paris. I discovered that Ariane is a HUGE Radiohead fan, so we basically talked about how amazing Radiohead is all night, Apparently she went to Oxford and saw his house, she said she'd give me the address. :-) It was really cool to walk around there, I mean there were a ton of people but some artist had set up all these clay pots (like for potted plants) and they all had fire in them (good thing Mom and Allie weren't there!) and they were in huge balls or arcs all around the edges of the gardens. It was so beautiful reflecting in all the ponds throughout the walk from Concorde to Louvre. Then unfortunately Jean Francois and Ariane had to go because they had to take the RER, but we were walking to the Marais and came upon some exhibition where an artist had taken photos of bodybuilders and put old people's faces on them, as a commentary on people wanting to stay young...it was really awesome, also because it was projected onto a church. In fact most of the churches were part of art exhibits, later in the Marais there was another one...so we watched that for a while, and then we went for a drink in the Marais. It was cool because the whole way there we just kept coming across different things, people playing drums, art stuff, whatever. We tried to take the Noctilien back to Bastille from there, but it never came, so we ended up walking (me, Anne, and Greg) which wasn't really bad, but it was 3 a.m. before I got back. Needless to say I slept till 10 before I went to Mme Bluteau's on Sunday!

So Sunday I went to Champigny-sur-Marne for lunch with Mme Bluteau (from Victor Hugo), she lives there with her 2 sons, Etienne (12, I think) and Adrien (15). It's really, nice, she think it's too far from Paris, but it's right next to the Marne (hence...sur-Marne) and there are a lot of really cute houses, really typically French. It was a great meal, we had an aperitif (yes, for lunch!) and she made ratatouille (apparently the first choice when it comes to cooking for vegetarians! I'm actually enjoying it, though, even with eggplant. It's all so mixed together...) and we had quetche tart for dessert. I think it took 3 hours for all that, then we walked around the Marne for an hour, which was really pretty, and then we had tea. Either way, she didn't take me back to the RER till 6 p.m.! It was really nice to get to know her outside of school, she's really a nice and interesting person. We spoke mostly French but also some English when we were talking about some English language things. It was good for me to talk with Adrien a little, and to hear him talk (Etienne's really shy, he didn't say much), because he speaks a really 'young' French, it was cool. They were both really excited about France beating New Zealand on Saturday night (everyone pretty much just drove through the city honking for joy...), and it's cool because Mme Bluteau's into it too. She also let me borrow some French novels, and when I go home for Christmas, I'm going to get a few for her in English. It was really nice of her to have me over, I'm glad I got to know her better.

Then Cecile came and we failed at much of our homework...but it was fun anyway, we did well on some of it. Then today I ended up going with Anne and Jean Francois to this 'Salon Zen' thing, it was like a huge conference for 'zen,' so there was information about yoga, health, natural stuff, organic food, that kind of thing. We were there for a long time, but it was so interesting. I got a plant that grows without water or dirt, it's magic and it kind of looks like a wacky mohawk. I also got some essential oils because, well, they smell amazing. I got lavendar and rosemary, they do sort of the opposite thing. Rosemary's supposed to help you focus when you study, and of course lavendar is there to relax you. But I already used a little of the rosemary today when I got back and kind of had a lot to do for tomorrow, and I think it might have helped. We also ate lunch there, I had a sandwich thing with spinach, lentils, and feta, it was on a flat bread with sesame seeds, all organic and really yummy. We also met this lady how made butters, like almond butter, but also quinoa butter, which was so amazingly interesting. I wasn't sure if I'd eat a whole jar of it, though. Also, we sat down for a long time with the essential oils lady, so I got to learn a lot about a looot of different scents. And it was really neat practice for my French, talking to a bunch of zen hippy ladies, really. Actually it was funny because it was really very hippy, but of course not like a hippy crowd in the US, it was a very well-dressed, Parisian hippy crowd. Anyway while it took up most of my day when I should have been studying, it was a really awesome time and of course it's so fun to hang out with Anne and Jean Francois. So now I'm going to go read for a few hours. Next time I won't wait a whole week to write a post!

Bienvenue a Creteil!

Sorry, the only picture I have of Creteil that is horizontal is of the church!

Today was my first day of work!!!! I went to Victor Hugo at 8 this morning; I even took the bus to the school because I was scared of being late. Luckily when they say class starts at 8h20 they really mean 8h20; I was actually early. I got to talk to Mme Tejerina, the one English teacher they didn't have me working with, and I planned on going to one of her classes in the afternoon; apparently there's some in-school politics with her and Mme Bluteau, the woman who makes my schedule. And apparently Mme Tejerina wants me to come on Monday afternoons to work with one of her classes, it was Mme Bluteau who told me this and she didn't sound too happy about it. More on that later....
The first class I went to was a 3e (so the last grade in college) with Amel Kerkouri, the young, really nice professor. She told everyone that I only spoke English, so I had to pretend I didn't understand them, which was really difficult. I introduced myself and let them ask me questions. They're doing a unit on Shakespeare, so I think for next week I'm going to bring in some information about an American playwright (at first I was like, Oh, Tennessee Williams, but even 16-year-olds shouldn't be reading that in a classroom...) and I think it'll probably be Thornton Wilder, because can you honestly go wrong with 'Our Town,' ever? Anyway I liked that class pretty well, and I met some of them at the end of the day, too...
The second class was with Mme Bluteau, it was a 4e and they were so incredibly enthousiastic that they spent the entire hour asking me questions, and eventually they discovered my real age, that I have 10 piercings and some tattoos, and that I have a boyfriend. Persistent little buggers...but they were asking me in English, and with proper grammar, how could I lie? no, really, they were cool, and a couple of them found out I speak 'some' French, so I talked to them in French too. I really feel like the ones who are interested in getting to know me are going to get an American culture lesson even speaking French...I'll be able to speak better because I don't have to use a child's vocabulary and speak so slowly, and I know that they understand. I mean, I do want them to speak in English, but if they want to know things about be and ask me in French, I'm not going to not tell them just because they can't ask in English. When we get to the point that I can explain to them how to ask things in English, I'll do that, but for the first day, I'd rather they didn't think I was a monglotic idiot.
Anyway the third class I went to was definitely my least favorite of the day, it was the 3e C with Mme Bluteau. They were rude to her and to me and just were not interested in listening or doing work or anything, and later Mme Bluteau confided in me that she isn't very fond of them either. :-)
Then I meant to go to Amel's class at 11:30, but I couldn't find her, so they sent me to the teacher's union meeting...they're thinking about striking on the 18th of October, I'm not sure why because I don't know any of the laws or regulations they were talking about and I also don't know the abbreviations...so it was kind of hard to follow, but still cool. I kind of hope they strike while I'm here - not so I don't have to work, but so I can go block up a petrol station for something that I'm sure I'll eventually understand.
Mme Bluteau invited me to her house on Sunday for lunch, it's only one RER stop past Creteil and by then I'll have 3 zones on the carte orange, so I'm definitely going to go. I'm really excited, I think it'll be good to get to know some of the teachers outside of school, since I'm kind of autonomous from them. I mean, I work with them, but I can kind of follow my own path according to where the kids are most interested. So it should be cool to get to know her a bit better, she seems really nice, and I know she has one 12-year-old son, I hope I get to meet him.
Then I had lunch and talked to someone who I think is the physics teacher, some nice guy who apparently lives on my street. Afterwards, I had class with Mme Kanoute, a 5e (so I kind of just introduced myself and then let her have class, they are still learning 'Are you from Ireland? Yes, I am Irish' and stuff like that). She seems to have most control over her students...she's the only one who can make them be quiet and listen, thank goodness one of them can.
At 3 I went with Mme Tejerina, I guess it's a 3e because I saw some of them with the European section at the end of the day. Some of them were really pretty good, and some of them didn't seem to know anything or really care either. For her I think I am going to do a little presentation about DC history, because she really likes DC and some of the kids have studied it a bit. I'm not sure how I feel about her, she seems to be a big Sarko fan and doesn't like immigrant parents who don't speak French...I totally led her on for a bit and she told me she supports building a wall on the US-Mexican border and that she was scared of the Black people at Union Station last time she was in the US...I'm sort of thinking I know why Mme Bluteau isn't her biggest fan. Anyway I'm not sure it was totally appropriate to write that publicly but it's really interesting for me because honestly I think it will reflect on how she treats her students...
Anyway the end of the day, I took a break at 4 because I had too many hours, so I went and hung out with the awesome secretary whose name I can't seem to remember, who filled out my forms like an awesome person so I can get paid. She's totally great and helpful, yesterday at the orientation for TA's they told us to become good friends with the secretaries, she seems to like me well enough, so I think I'm in luck.
Finally at 5 I went to Mme Kanoute again because she's got the European section, and I think they're the ones who will benefit most from talking to me because their English is most 'advanced' anyway (it's kind of relative) but they were really not enthusiastic...they had read a text about William Wallace and had to read sentences they wrote about it. So by the end, I was with one small group, and I just kind of let them ask me stuff (half in English, half in French) because it was all about what I did and liked in the US, it's cultural enough for the first day. Some of them had been in Amel's class in the morning and they were really shocked when they found out I spoke French, it was kind of great. They were good kids, just a little trouble focusing at 5:30 in the evening, that is a long freakin day!
Overall I think it went well, they seemed to be interested enough in having me there and hopefully the things I have ideas about are interesting enough for them. I think a US history lesson will be good, especially DC history and WV history (because most of them don't really realize WV is not just the western part of Virginia....like most good Americans), and some random other things too, like some rock music and maybe some of those kids' books. Hopefully this Thornton Wilder thing will be interesting and not completely useless. :-)
tomorrow starts classes, and apparently my student card will be ready, but honestly I don't think there will be time for me to get it and go register at ILPGA. Hopefully I'll have really great things to post about tomorrow!!!!