The Great Outdoors

If there's one sure thing you can do around here, it's HIKING. I was supposed to be traveling for a race this weekend, but since it got cancelled, I  spent a nice weekend here in the Vosges. I've only been hiking a few times, but each time, it just gets better and better. And all this time I was so fixated on being in a city! I'm hoping this doesn't change for the worse once the snow really sets in, or after I've been here for more than just a couple months. Either way, there are enough trails in and around Gerardmer to last me a very long time. During the first couple of weeks, Imanta, Charlene and I began to wander through the forest just around the lake, as it was the closest and the most accesible.This one alone is incredibly beautiful and picturesque, especially on a sunny day. 

           

Although I was surrounded by mountains in Pennsylvania, I never really seized the opportuniy to explore them, save for a few times during senior year. Not that I had much time for this then! So, what better time than now to make up for it.  It's the "dead" month now, when the weather is generally pretty grey,  it gets dark particularly early, and there are no tourists whatsoever. This weekend though, I was lucky enough to have specks of sun and a friendly teacher who wanted to take me along to "les Cretes," where we hiked for a good 4 hours. These mountians separate Lorraine from Alsace, and on a good day, you can see all the way to the Swiss Alps. It was a little hazy, but you could see a faint outline in the distance. We walked up to one of the highest points, "Hohneck," and then made our way down the side of the mountain and back up through a woodsy trail which ended in a snowy paradise. It had just snowed the night before, so everything looked  pretty and fresh. There is supposed to be more snow next week, so hopefully I'll be up and skiing in no time :) Who says you can't have fun in the sticks!

A Bizzare Lesson

While things have generally been going smoothly, I knew I’d eventually have an off day, not to mention a bad lesson. Little did I know that it would hit me so soon, or quite so awkwardly. To preface the story: my apartment building is on the side of a small mountain and is therefore completely exposed to the elements. It’s great when it’s sunny, but when it rains, it sounds like you’re standing underneath the Niagara Falls. What’s worse is when there’s a strong wind, you get the feeling the building is seconds away from levitating and being swept away to the Land of Oz by a category five hurricane. You get the idea. So Thursday night there were winds of about 60 km/h pounding against my bedroom window with an incredible force. As a result, I didn’t sleep. Inconveniently, I had six hours of class awaiting me the next day! I can handle being half awake while attending class, because face it, everyone goes through those days in college. However, teaching under these circumstances is a whole other story. I realized it actually takes a good amount of energy to be enthusiastic and animated for a whole hour to keep the kids engaged and to lead them into productive discussion. When you’re out of it though, it’s like you trying to pull your own teeth.

Class was pretty much normal until the last hour. It was the last class of the day on Friday, so naturally the kids had somewhat of a shorter attention span and were ready to be done for the week. Anyways, their teacher had asked me to discuss the film poster from “Fast Food Nation.” The poster is already kind of strange to begin with, but some of the questions were worse:

“What are the hamburgers supposed to resemble?”
“Why is there an American flag on the baby’s diaper?”
“Why is the baby reaching up to the hamburgers?”
“What makes this poster provocative?”

I suppose they’re relatively harmless on the surface, but when dealing with teenagers, maybe not ideal. Upon asking them to respond to the first question, I was faced with silence. I figured this would happen, because not only were they supposed to talk about boobs, but they were supposed to do this in a foreign language with an assistant they hardly knew. After a continued struggle for answers, it was my turn to explain:

“Well, the hamburgers are supposed to resemble a woman’s breasts. The baby is reaching up to the breasts because it’s probably hungry, and of course it’s too young to eat hamburgers, but if the mother consumes them, then the hormones from the meat are likely to be in her breast milk, so therefore the baby would be indirectly eating the hamburger meat, and the poster is trying to explain that … blah blah blah.”

After all that there was a brief lull. Then one of the students calls out, “BOOBS!”

I could see the light bulb go on when he realized that this was in fact what we were talking about. Sadly, I think the majority of the class missed the point of my explanation. It wasn’t until one of the better students translated what I said that they got it, and oh how funny they thought it was! Clearly they hadn’t quite reached the level of maturity to seriously talk about things like “breast milk.” Mind you these questions came from their book! It quickly dawned on me why the teacher might have preferred to leave this lesson to me. Ah the joys of being an assistant. Since this obviously wasn’t going anywhere, I decided to drop it and move on to another question, which brought us to the next, extremely academic topic of poop.

When discussing babies and diapers, it’s not a big surprise. Unfortunately though, the students didn’t express themselves in the most eloquent of ways: “The baby shit on America!” I asked for a better word, upon which I was given “poop.” After lecturing that “shit” and “poop” are not words we use in polite conversation, let alone class, they wanted to know the alternative. While not being an expert in this field of terminology myself, I initially hesitated, but decided on “relieving oneself” as the proper expression. And what do you say instead of “shit?” At this point, I found myself writing “feces” on the board. While writing this in my half-asleep, over-caffeinated state, I realized how ridiculous it all was. Too late, there it was, written on the board in big letters. Then I went on to explain that in this movie, a man discovered fecal matter in his hamburger meat, etc. This evoked both laughter and disgust, as I’m sure it’s not every day they talk about these things in class. French scchools are generally very ridig! It’s a good thing the principal didn’t decide to drop by and observe that day. Luckily I was spared from having to go into any further detail, as class was about to end. Truly saved by the bell! Well, that concluded the lecture on…what was it we were talking about again? Fast Food? Oh how easily things can go astray.

In the end I was left to wonder: Is this really what the teacher had envisioned for class? Is this really what the French government is paying me to do? Oh yes. But before I could give it any further thought, I was back in bed on the verge of much needed sleep, glad to have made it through the day, and feeling like I’d been dreaming all along. In the end, it’s something to laugh about. For what it’s worth, it got them talking. Lets just hope there’s no more stormy Thursdays...

First Update!

So I am new to the world of blogging and never really saw myself as a "blogger," but i figured this would be better than sending really long, intrusive, e-mail updates. This way I don't risk sending e-mails to uninterested participants and you can check out the blog at your own leisure, if you are ever wondering what I'm up to.

With that, I am sending you my first "Hello" from France, which seems to have been on the brink of revolution..!

Teachers, students, trains, civil servants, literally EVERYONE was going on strike this past month in a struggle against Sarkozy's law to increase the age of retirement. As usual, the strikes have proven to be unproductive. In the meantime, trains were getting cancelled left and right and trash was piling up sky high in cities like Marseille where the garbage men were striking as well. And all anyone can say is..."Welcome to France!"

It's been just over a month since I've moved to Gerardmer and everything has been wonderful, for the most part. The town is very cute and primarily caters to its tourists during the summer and winter months. The downside: there is no train station! This makes traveling somewhat of a big ordeal that requires much detailed planning and coordinating with buses, carpools, etc. The school is relatively small and built into the hillside, looking down into the center of town and with a pretty view of the ski slopes. Most of the area is completely covered in forest with specks of little towns here and there. I didn't expect to be living the small town life again, but I'll take it!

I live in the boarding school and share an apartment with the primary school assistant, Imanta, who is from PA and also has dual American and European citizenship. We both have our own smallish bedrooms and share a kitchen (with attached dining room), large bathroom, and toilet. There is no living room, so we usually just hang out in the kitchen. The best thing about it... it's free! For meals we either cook or eat in the cafeteria. There is a third American assistant in town as well (from CT), so the three of us sometimes get together on the weekends. Unfortunately it's a bit hard to meet French people in such a small town, at least ones that aren't much older, or creepy. The town has a notorious "stalker" who has already managed to meet all three of us, but luckily we haven't seen him (as far as I know) since the first couple weeks we've been here. There aren't many twenty somethings in the area since they probably all take off for the cities as soon as they get the chance. This means there is plenty of time for preparation and pondering the great questions of life ;)

Luckily I have made friends with many of my colleagues, who are all incredibly nice and hospitable. We eat lunch together in a separate room in the cantine, which makes for great chats in French about everyday life. I immediately bonded with one of the English teachers because she's an active rower and took me right to practice the first day where she introduced me to the coaches and rowers. I promptly signed up and was already racing with them in Burgundy a couple weeks later. I raced in an octuple skull with the head coach, two assistant coaches, a junior national champion, and some adults who row recreationally. Never thought I'd be rowing in France! It was great fun and good to meet people outside of school. Some of my students row at the club as well, so I got to know them a little bit better. I was looking into coaching, but as it turns out, you need a special license for in France. I would have to take "rowing instruction classes" and learn about the history of rowing, etc., followed by an exam. Nothing like Detroit where I showed up out of the blue one day and was getting paid to coach the next. They certainly take their rowing seriously!

As for work, I have 15 different classes and teach about 12 hours per week, not including lesson plans. The kids are great, although their English skills are a bit worse than I expected. I usually come up with my own lesson plans and always teach about half of the class on my own in a separate room. The number of students I have ranges from about 5 to 15. Pretty interesting experience, teaching without having studied pedagogy! Sometimes it's hit and miss with the activities, so I usually need to have a plan B, and sometimes even C. That hardest part is to get everyone to talk and to find activities that accommodate for their different skill levels. They hardly practice speaking in their regular classes, so many are very shy about it.

In other news, yesterday was my last day of fall break and I just got back from traveling with my friend from college, Meghan, who is also an assistant in a city close to Paris, Chartres. The good thing about working for the French school system is that they hardly go two months without a vacation. We had a great time visiting some ancient towns in Provence, mainly exploring the Roman ruins, medieval castles, and museums. We spent two nights in Avignon and the rest of break in Arles, taking several day trips throughout our stay. It was a miracle we made it there and back with all the strikes !

In Arles we stayed with a wonderful Couch Surfing host who drove us around the country side to see the hidden provincial terrains, inaccessible through public transportation. We were also there for Halloween, which we celebrated by introducing our host and some of his friends to *pumpkin pie.* Meghan and I made it from scratch, and it may not have been as good as mom's, but i think it was a hit nevertheless. In exchange, our host introduced us to various French cakes, tortes, and some darn good quiche, and Pastis. Then, as if someone was trying to tell me I was having entirely too much fun, my wallet got stolen. It was turned in to the police station four days later, without money, but everything else intact. It was the perfect storm, but no need to go into further detail...

That's all for now! I promise the other posts won’t be as long. Write back or comment if you'd like :) It would be great to hear from you. Miss everyone and the pretty colors of fall in Michigan. Already counting down the days until Thanksgiving, which will hopefully be spent in Oldenburg with Auntie Phyllis :) Cheers!