Chapitre 3 - La Vie en Rose

Hello guys and gals,
I am fairly positive that I have everyone successfully on this e-mail list now...

The blog didn't work as planned. The firewall on this server is pretty severe, so e-mail is all I have.

Anyway, so how the heck are y'all? I am so sorry it has been a whole month without a message from me, but every time I sat down the write the task just seemed too daunting... maybe that means I shouldn't be a writer? Ha ha.

Where to begin...

Travels: I've been running around on a shoestring budget. Aaahhhh there is SO much to talk about. I've been to a few teachers' homes. They like to take me home and shower me in home meals and show me off to their boyfriends or husbands or wives etc. etc. They all like to grill me about American politics and I am delighted to oblige. So I've seen some delightful little French homes. Ah, I don't think I can have a home without a gate and walled gardens. I also had proper tea with an English woman who had an authentic English garden that my grandmother would positively DIE for. European home life is just so different than America. I've yet to see stainless steel or a TV in the kitchen. It is just so homey. So different. Smells so weird, haha.
I spent a few days in Reims - an old old city in the north. Clovis, the first France king, was crowned there in, like 480 A.D. or something. (And as my past teachers know, I geek out on that history stuff, haha - plus all other French kings were coronated there) So when I mean old France, I mean OLD France. The cathedral there is world-famous and survived some serious bombing from WWII. That is the bad part of the North... so much stuff was just destroyed at the hands of silly men. Loss of life, loss of culture, lo the casualties of war. It rained the whole time I was there, but I was there to meet other assistants and get trained. Made some friends that I have visited since, so it was a good time. I think the best part of this trip is walking away with yet more international friendships. We visted a champagne cave, random spots around town and a cool basilica (with the tomb of St. Remy, the dude who baptized Clovis. He lived until he was 96 and there is a chandelier that has 96 candles to honor him. I didn't think anyone lived that long back then.)
Spent a night in Paris, too. And by a night, I mean stritcly one whole all-night affair called Nuit Blanche. It is an all-night cultural fete thrown around the world. Museums were open all night and there were bands, dancing, and outdoor art exhibits all over Paris. I was awake for 28 hours. It was... interesting. Nothing like buying a train ticket home at 6am. Ah, the follies of youth!
Troyes is the closest major city. Think an Akron-Canton. It is a 20 minute train ride and I have friends there that I visit when I can. I watched the France-England Rugby World Cup semifinal there with some Brits. When England won, they were pretty stoked. The French weren't too happy, haha, so we left the bar so they could revel in the streets. Troyes is pretty cool - an old city with pockets of modernism... but small pockets. Most of the time things are made to look old and fit in in Europe, you know? It is also the capital of my departement, so I go there for all my paperwork needs.

Mishaps: Well, after the money exchange, things didn't get any better. They call me Mlle Catastrophe or La Catastrophe Ambulant which just means I am a walking disaster, but I already knew that. I broke a teacup and saucer at a teacher's house and set off the school alarm. I fell flat on my face in the cathedral in Reims - crashing to the floor as they were preparing a funeral. I almost broke my hand and I busted open my knee and started bleeding through my pants. I twisted the same knee in Paris during Nuit Blanche and got blisters that were so bad that they STILL aren't healed (three weeks later!) I lost my voice for a week, got it back, then managed to destroy my esophagus with a wayward vitamin. I've had to fight a very long, hard battle to get Internet, managed to break the copier and wasn't prepared for my first three classes ever because of problems with a computer program. I've been back and forth with problems with my French bank and was given one day's notice that I had to head to Troyes for a medical exam, leading me to scramble last minute to find a teacher to shelter me for a night. I can't watch Heroes and I am so so sad. I am sure there has been more... Oh, I didn't know you had to bring you own shopping bags to the grocery store and basically had to put everything back... then I found out I could buy bags there, but was too proud to admit my flub, haha. Oh, aImost forgot the best news - the paperwork for my French work visa is lost somewhere between my mayors office and the capital office in Troyes and I will be deported in December if they can't find it. No. For real.

Teaching: It isn't too bad. I have the equivelant of sophomore, junior and senior classes ranging all sorts of studies. I have 12 classes split into 24 groups. I say I have close to 250 students. Lots of names that I do not remember, haha. Those who study marketing or science really don't care about English, so they are the hardest to make talk. Sigh. My sophomores are pretty cool - I am doing a film project with them. They have to write and make their own films in English. So with six groups, that means six films. They are competing for a prize at the end of the school period in January. They seem really excited and I am, too.
My juniors are fun because they know more than my sophomores but don't have the pressure of being a senior. !!!!!Hint hint hint Mme. Thorley!!!!! If you want to do a pen-pal exchange program, lets do it with them!
My seniors have their BAC, which is the test that determines if they graduate or not and it is huge and very hard, so I do activities that challenge them to think they way they have to for the BAC. Lots of reading texts and talking about them. Kind of boring, but I choose fun texts. Some also have the Cambridge Exam, which is an English specialty exam. I have some students that want extra help, so I am starting an English Club to discuss anything and everything about Anglophone culture and language.
Several of the students have noted that I have acting experience. Apparently I am THAT expressive, haha. I try to act out the word they don't know instead of telling it to them in French. It gets the point across, usually with a laugh. I taught a particular group of juniors how to say "Oh man." I said it and they thought I said "oh merde" (a swearing expression) and that caught them off guard that they thought I swore in front of them, haha. I explained and now they say it all the time. They all say hello to me in the hall. It is weird to have students, I think. I take every opportunity I can to go on field trips to the theater, so I have a little network of thesbians who greet me in the hall. Some of them aren't even my students and they keep begging to switch into my class, haha.

Well, I hope that is enough to hold you over for now. I know I should write more, but I am not so sure you want to read any more, haha. This letter got pretty long, eh? How about you send me some questions and I will collectively answer them. What do you want to know about French culture, my school, my life here, etc.?

ATTENTION, however: I will be on vacation for the next 10 days. I am going to Bruges, Belgium (an absolutely gorgeous medieval city) and Amsterdam (yes, again) with some friends. Both have canal networks, so I guess it is my little canal tour. Internet access is only possible when I can pay for it cheap, haha, but send your questions and responses please, so I have something to read!!

I hate to admit it, but I am terribly homesick. I don't want to come home, but I just miss home where I can get some Taco Bell and just ponder the sky with my friends. Ah, home. Speaking of which, I will be home for Christmas!! Yay! With Brandon in tow because even though we are 4,000 miles away from each other, we are making it work. :) So look forward to seeing his charming face - he's been boning up on Jeopardy, watch out Jensens!

Anyway, family, friends, educators... thanks for all your support. I know all the young kids know most of this stuff thanks to Facebook, so I am sorry you had to read all about it again, haha.

Someone work some magic and make the dollar stronger, please?

Ok, I love you all and will stop rambling now. Keep on keepin' on and Happy Halloween!

Gros bisous!
Meredith "La Catastrophe Ambulant" Jensen