Bureaucracy

Pedestrian street near my apartment

I realize that my first week in France looks incredibly stressful through these posts, but it’s really all the wading through French bureaucracy and struggling to adjust to a new life. I now have a bank account, am on my way to getting my carte de sejour, working on the CAF, and finally seeing past the paperwork to the beautiful scenery around me. Valence is in the Rhone Valley and the mountains around it and the river that goes past it are beyond charming. I can already feel the French language coming back to me and I think I’m better at it than when I left. Or maybe just more confident. I think I actually had a somewhat intelligent conversation about the American financial crisis in French. However, I do feel like expectations are kind of high, as I perhaps unwisely mentioned that I did my honors thesis on Sartre, and now all the teachers think I’m some sort of French literature expert.

A delicious sandwich I purchased in Valence.

Except for one or two instances, everyone has been incredibly nice, from the man who stamped my passport to the woman I will be working with in the schools. Actually, I think that was the first time anyone at French customs has shown the least interest in me. The French certainly seem to be more engaged if you say you’re an assistant than if you’re a student. The woman I will be working with in the three primary schools in and around Valence has gone out of her way to make me welcome, even inviting me to her house for lunch in the countryside to meet her family, pony, and dog. And of course, the food has been delicious. I don’t know how a sandwich with just cheese, tomato, and lettuce can be so amazing.

For Cecilia and Elizabeth.

I’ve been weighed down with English teaching materials (British English, of course). I still have a week or so of observation before I lead the class. It’s going to only be three days of the week in class, but the schedule is tight and I will work with at least three different classes of students of varying levels each day. Class time will make up all but three hours of my work, with the rest left to working with French teachers on English, having “English luncheons” with the students, or creating recordings. I’ve never worked with children before, but the ones I’ve observed here seem eager to learn, so I’m nervous but optimistic.

I’ll hopefully be getting an international calling card soon! I also have a landline in addition to my cellphone where I can reached. Oh, and I have an address, too. Leave a comment if you want it!

Orientation

I am now actually in Valence, the city where I will be teaching. Sorry for the delay in posting, internet is still difficult but I should be fully “wired” by Monday. Who wants to Skype???

I just spent two and a half days at a Stage (orientation) in Autrans with the other 300 assistants in the Academie de Grenoble. The summer camp that we stayed in was quickly and separately (and tastelessly perhaps) nicknamed Auschwitz by the Anglophones. It must have been built during the war and everything was built at the level of a six year old. All of us were at least over 18, with most over 21, so this was inconvenient.

My lovely Autrans dorm

The rooms were in this long echoing buildings and each room had six beds. I was in a room with another American, an English girl, two Germans, and a Swiss girl. The room was probably only meant to hold four beds, but I guess 300 people are hard to accommodate. The surrounding mountains were beautiful. However, I pity the French child who has to spend their whole summer in the stark Bellecombe dormitory and eat the dining hall food.

Most things were "interdit" (forbidden) at camp. Including playing on the rocks. Running. Etc.

The food… I’ve never had such food in France. It was so bad that I actually got excited to see what bizarre concoction they would bring out next. Each meal was an inexplicable five courses, except for breakfast, which was giant boxes of cornflakes and coffee. No coffee cups though, so you had to either use your cereal bowl for coffee or the cornflakes and unpasteurized milk.  Back to lunch and dinner though. Luckily, there was always something that was free of meat and plenty of bread that you could retrieve from strategically positioned laundry baskets. The first night there was a mushy, salty vegetable mixture as an appetizer. Someone at my table declared it “tasted like seawater.” Other dinner and lunch highlights included the endless plates of cheese that came between the main course and dessert. One night dessert was a plate of chocolate éclairs, the next apples and processed cheese. Throughout the meals, the cooks would be standing with arms crossed in the dining hall. They were very strict about where you could sit and made you fill up an entire table before the next could be seated at.

I'm in Alaska and Oklahoma at the same time!

The reason we were actually at this place was to learn about what we would be doing. However, I mostly was told that I have to teach Queen’s English. My thoughts on this is if they wanted official British English, they shouldn’t have hired American, Canadian, Australian, South African, Jamaican, Taiwanese, and Irish assistants.  So I’ll do my best, but I’m not going to care very much about the difference between “coloring pencils” and “colored pencils.” They were also adamant about not touching the children. Thank god they cleared that up.

Despite all this, the Stage was amazing for meeting all the other assistants. I met a lot of fun and amazing people and I’m excited to meet up throughout the months. We’re kind of spread out, but it’s not a huge space. I’m going to spend this weekend and the following week in Valence and may head over to Grenoble again next weekend to sightsee. Or go to a bar that doesn’t require a mile walk in the cold mountain air like in Autrans. I guess crazy conditions are good bonding experiences though and I’m feeling good about the English-speaking safety net I have if things get stressful.

In France

I made it to France! Unfortunately, like most of my international travel, it wasn’t easy. My flight to Dallas was on time, early even. However, the flight from Dallas to London Heathrow had a hydraulics issue that caused it to be delayed 2 1/2 hours. This meant that I missed my flight from London to Paris and had to wait for the next one. I don’t know why, but it seemed like every single food establishment in the Dallas airport that had vegetarian food was closed and I ended up with an over-baked pretzel. The food on the British Airways flight was actually okay, but as usual with airplane food I felt kind of ill when I got to my destination. So the food voucher I got from British Airways to use while I waited for my flight was not well used. Also, Heathrow’s Terminal Five is not a fun place to stay. It’s an overload of music and shops and tons of people. And I was so very tired, but couldn’t fall asleep and risk waking up to missing luggage. My fatigue was also probably not helped due to the fact that I did not sleep at all the night before my flight. I went to an art show and had drinks as a last hurrah in Oklahoma City, then of course frantically packed until it was time to leave for my flight. I’m still rather tired.

Getting back to the trip. When I finally made it to Paris, I took the bus to Gare de Lyon to store my giant suitcase in a luggage locker. Then I took the metro to the hostel where I had reserved a room. Of course, when I get to the hostel after walking quite a ways from the metro stop, they had given away my place because I hadn’t called and said that I was going to be late. Because I didn’t have any pounds to make a call in London and there were no phones on the plane. The person working at that hostel booked me a room at the Blue Planet Hostel, all the way back by Garde de Lyon. So I buy another metro ticket and drag my tired body over there again. This hostel is significantly seedier and a little more expensive than my original hostel, but I am so tired that I am not willing to look for another. Besides, it was only for one night. I shared the room of creaking, somewhat clean bunk-beds with three other girls, one from Israel, one from Switzerland, and one from Italy. The sheets were not very clean and the hostel charged for every little thing. I had originally planned to meet some other language assistants at 5 pm, but I was very late by the time I got there so of course there was no one there. I did make myself walk around a bit, because I’m not often in Paris. I also ended up meeting some nice people at the hostel while waiting to get into my room afterwards (there was only one key, and one of the roommates walked away with it). Today, I didn’t feel very well, but did make myself walk around some of Paris near the Louvre. By some miracle nothing went wrong with the train to Grenoble and I met two other assistants right away at the hostel (one of whom actually has rented a car). I’ve since met several others and we have orientation tomorrow. No pictures yet as I was forgetful and didn’t charge my camera. I can’t wait to leave my 50 pounds of luggage somewhere, but for now I am dragging it on buses and trains. Despite all that, I am in France! And I’ve already had a delicious sandwich, several Oranginas, and a slice of quiche. So that really makes all the travel pains worth it. More soon!