Day two of teaching was lovely. (As was the sunrise, which I saw. But maybe you don't want to see anymore photos of my window view of Belley? Even though it's better than your view. There. I said it.) By the by, the name of this town, Belley, is pronounced like in rock climbing: belay. When I was at girl scout camp, one of the few things I remember learning is "On belay?" "Belay on."
So, got to work and was a bit concerned that I was late because I didn't see the usual hordes of students milling about outside. Everything was really quiet. So, I went inside and Sandra said we'd go to the class but maybe there wouldn't be anyone there so we might discuss the Larry Clark art exhibit, which is the first to be censored in France. Riot! Anyway, there were three kids in the class, so I obviously didn't take any of them with me. Sandra left me to talk to them briefly, and I gave them my introduction spiel and then they told me their names: Anaïs, Tomas, and Coralie. Once Sandra got back, she asked them what they learned about me. Then we spent the whole hour talking about things to do in Lyon, things to do in Los Angeles, and the differences between France and America.
You might be wondering why no one was in school yesterday. It's because they were striking. In protest of France raising the age of retirement from 60 to 62 and changing the age at which the French become eligible for their pensions. (You can read more here.) A lot of the students were participating. Nicole told me during the break that two years ago they were protesting and they blocked the school so that people couldn't get in. (Illegal, by the way.) When I asked her what it was for, she said she couldn't remember. Imagine there being so many strikes that you can't remember which one kept you from getting to work. Sabine later told me that it was something to do with education and that some students had actually slept in the school. From what I understand from Sandra, it might have been the reform that made teachers' first years be filled with regular course loads instead of starting with just a few and observing until the second year when they have full schedules. Still, though, not sure.
Sandra said that she would have been out en grève (striking), and that she had been earlier, but that she had to finish the project that she was doing with the students. At least, that's what she told them. It seems like maybe she's substituting for someone? Unclear. Anyway, she asked the three students why they weren't outside, and they gave responses. Coralie said that she doesn't think that striking really does anything. Anaïs said that she thinks lessons are too important to miss. Tomas's reponse, though, was my favorite, "I agree with Coralie. Besides, it's too cold." Which it totes was.
I then went to my second lesson with Nicole's students. She sent me with two girls, Charlène and Anaïs, to help them practice their oral presentations of documents for their exams at the end of the year. Down we went to an absolutely massive empty classroom. They each had a cartoon to prepare and then give a ten minute discussion of each. After giving them 15 minutes to write, Charlène went first. She had a cartoon of Martin Luther King Jr. on TV giving his famous speech (the caption) and with a boy watching it. On the back of the boy's shirt, it read "Barack." Unfortunately, Charlène couldn't read the back of the boy's shirt. And when I asked her if she knew who Martin Luther the King was, she didn't. So, I kind of had to summarize all of what MLK means into one sentence. Not easy. Anaïs's was on the generation gap and technology: a joke about driving to a blog. Both were good, but only about 5 minutes each. So then we talked about ways to improve for next time. When I asked if they had any questions, Charlène excitedly said, "For you?" So I told them that if they wanted to, they could ask me questions.
They wanted to know the usual junk. Why I was there. What I do. I said, "I teach here." They asked, "You don't go to the movies or anything?" Then I realized they were asking about my social life. Which, at this moment, is kind of limited. They kind of smiled and said, "It's pretty boring, right?" I asked them about what they want to do as both girls are in términale, which means they're essentially high school seniors. Charlène wants to study human resources and Anaïs wants to go to school to improve her English and German and then go to business school. How nice to have a future planned out. During the upcoming vacations, Charlène is going to live with a host family in England and take classes to improve her English for the bac (basically the French SAT) and Anaïs is planning on working on her German. They work hard for the money.
After that, I went back to the teacher's lounge to get my coat and bounce since I had a break before my last lesson with Sabine, which I went to. But to which no students showed up. The teacher's lounge is kind of a terrifying place for me since I know hardly any of the teachers and never know if someone's going to speak to me in English or in French. Luckily, this time, Marc sat down and asked me (in English) if Kirsty was gone yet. (More about this in the next paragraph.) I said she was leaving later and that I was really scared that I'd become this total recluse and hate my year here because, oh yeah, when Marc picked me up from the train station two weeks ago he told me about the assistant from two years ago (Lee/Leigh?) who was very sad all the time and didn't get out much. Then he said that I'd be okay. "She seemed really scared of everything. She was also Scottish." Maybe there's something in Loch Ness!? (besides the monster, obvio.) Then he said like three times, "You're not like her." Which was nice of him to say because oh triste, Marc is the closest thing I have to a friend right now. (Not that there's anything wrong with Marc. He's actually very nice and I'm hoping to infiltrate his friend network. I think I already have. I ran into Séb yesterday and he recognized me! Baby steps, yo.)
So, in reference to my previous mention of the abandonment, as I'm going into the building, I see Kirsty and her mom coming out with Kirsty's suitcase. That's because I didn't tell you guys that at training last week she told me that she was 80% sure that she was going to quit the program. Because I was hoping that the 20% of her that was still going for the gusto (and being reasonable) would win out. Welp, wrong again! She's gone now.
Starting back at 1,
Yessica
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