After my update last week, I went with some other assistants to La Nuit Blanche in Paris, a night where there are art installations all over the city and all the museums are ouvert nearly the whole night long. Because we are poor-in-salary- but-rich-in-experience-teaching-assistants, we did not pay for a place to stay overnight and stayed out in Paris from when we arrived at 9 PM until the first train back to Orléans, at 7 30 in the morning.
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| Train times! |
We walked for nearly ten hours, with a couple stops for coffee, omelettes, and kebab. I think my favorite thing was being able to walk around Notre Dame at midnight, wandering around through the cathedral with only candlelight.
Here's some spontaneous music and dancing by the Seine!
We also went to the Georges Pompidou museum, where we got a glimpse at a lot of beautiful modern art.
From about 5 to 7 AM, things that were supposed to be open, like the Louvre, started being closed due to "technical difficulties"—or, because Paris is French. We started to get tired and grabbed some kebabs:
We did hang out on the Louvre's lawn and watched a short film called "Logorama" a few times. I was scared because Ronald McDonald was a crazy killer and I'm, errm, not a fan of clowns.
It was a long night, but I'm really glad that I had the opportunity in my life to go .
The next week, I began teaching again. This week, I started to take half of the class on my own for about a half hour at a time. At the Lycée, my first class was a little rocky because I underplanned the period and got a little attitude from the students. But, I figured it out the next period and changed activities quickly. I used a game I brought from the US called "Headbanz," where you put on a headband that holds a card with a picture and a vocabulary word, and have to ask questions of others to figure out what you are. I simplified the game and only had one student come to the front of the class at a time, and it seemed to work really well. I continued to do this activity for the rest of the week. I also had to kick a student out of one of my classes because she wouldn't listen to me and refused to sit in the front of the room, and even though I was patient with her, would not try to participate. I felt badly, but I really need to establish authority right now We'll try again with her next week.
At the collège my youngest students loved spending time apart with me, their faces were all aglow and shining. I just want to hug all of them all the time. We practiced questions like "how old are you? what is your nationality? where do you live? do you have any brother's and sisters?"and then I drew pictures on the board and had the students create their own character (with a chosen number of pets which usually came in ridiculous quantities, a nationality, etc). I then had students come up and pretend to be the character and the class asked him/her questions. They loved it.
Walking around the school, the children stop and say "hello!" very enthusiastically, and grin when I wave to them. One student even said "rehello!" to me on Friday—in french you can usually add "re" to a verb to indicate that it is happening again. Hahahahaha.
In the afternoon, I work on a project with the other teachers where students are designing a 'cabaret' piece that combines the themes of art, music, language, and literature. I had to work with some students this week on translating their script into English. Because this is a part of the day taught in French, I had to speak some French to the boys I was working with. We had a fun time when I did understand the French that needed to be translated—the boys explained a different way in French, the made hand motions, acted things out—it was really good for both me and the students. Also, one boy named Pierre is very small, and they started to call him "little stone" (pierre means stone in English, but is also a popular name). That had me cracking up.
My ride with Stèphane and Sylvain was great as usual. This week, Stèphane talked to me about how he loves watching CNN because he thinks the women are beautiful and how he hates communists. He also talked to me about the French view of Americans. He said that for his mother, who was born in a concentration camp, the image of the Americans that freed them were these smiling, laughing people that brought love and safety. In time, as his parents became very strong leftists, it became necessary to talk poorly of Americans. He said that he is sad that this paradox exists. Then Sylvain, the art teacher, talked a lot about art and colors on the way home. I hope someday soon I'll start to feel comfortable jumping into conversations It can be easy when people ask me questions and talk to me one on one, but in a big group it's very hard for me to follow and feel like I can interject my opinion.
The other night, my neighbor Benjmain also came over again. I made him a CD, and he liked the Tim Eriksen tracks best. :] My American friend Rhiannon was also over so that ended up being good because when I didn't understand his French, she did, and vice versa. Benjamin is so fun! I love listening to his music. We also sang the cranberries song "Zombie" together because he heard me listening to it the other day. He loves to talk and talk and talk though, so I have to remind him to slow down. We also played the headbanz game that I played with my students in French, which was fun. ANnnnnd, he told me to be careful when I say "habiter" a verb that means "live"—because "bite" means dick. Ooooops. Gotta pronounce that one correctly! He's going on vacation this week (he works at a hospital) but next week we're going to have a dinner of both French and American items. Rhiannon and I are going to make some pie.
I also had a night with the other English teachers form the Lycée where we had crêpes to celebrate Andrea's birthday. It's so nice to be included in their community. Although I can't always keep up with what they are saying, I'm getting better at understanding and feeling like I can respond. Also, crêpes are a beautiful gift in life.
Last night I went to the night market in the center of town and then out for some drinks with the other assistants was good.
Right now I'm here on a rainy Saturday in the Bibliothèque—actually, it's called the Mediathèque. I really want to spend more time studying the language so that I can be a better communicator. I never thought I'd be this motivated to integrate into the culture, but for some reason, this year I really am.
I love you all and I love my life—and this year is going to be so good for me. My usual anxieties are eaten up by the fact that I so badly want to communicate and integrate and learn how to live day to day in a new place.
K-la
PS also really getting obsessed with hot chocolat...
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